A true end of an era is upon us: ITV is closing it's CITV linear TV channel, thus ending the iconic Children's ITV brand, which has given us such iconic shows as
Thomas the Tank Engine,
Sooty,
How 2,
Tugs,
Press Gang,
Spatz,
Mike & Angelo,
Knightmare,
Rainbow,
Fun House,
Finders Keepers (UK),
Art Attack,
Rosie & Jim,
Wizadora,
ZZZap! and so many more classics, as well as weekend blocks such as
Ghost Train,
Wacaday,
Motormouth and
SMTV Live, and has aired quite a bit of Nickelodeon programming over the years, such as
SpongeBob SquarePants,
Hey Arnold!,
Rugrats and
You Can't Do That on Television,
In a major blow to kids TV in the U.K., ITV will move children's programming to ITVX Kids, a new dedicated destination for kids on ITV's ITVX streaming service, set to launch in July 2023. Following the launch of ITVX Kids, ITV will close the CITV channel during Autumn 2023.
ITV to supercharge kids offering on ITVX
ITVX Kids to launch in Summer 2023
ITV today announces the launch of a new dedicated destination for kids on ITVX - ITVX Kids - with more content than ever before, across a range of titles appealing to both school age and pre-school age children.
Launching in July 2023, and rolling out across the school summer holiday period, the new consolidated children’s offering will also see ITV taking its approach to 6-12s content, streaming-only, from early Autumn 2023.
ITVX Kids is part of ITV’s continuing drive to supercharge its presence in streaming, delivering content to audiences however they want to watch it. BARB viewing data demonstrates that while the average amount of broadcast TV minutes of kids TV channels watched by 4-15 year olds per week has declined by -62% since 2019, unmatched* viewing has risen by +30% in the same period, demonstrating the streaming first trend in kids viewing.
The Kids ITVX homepage, accessed within a child-safe ITVX Kids profile, will bring together over 100 brilliant titles in a dedicated homepage, with over 1000 hours of programming to choose from, a near doubling of the current offer, with curated rails and collections.
The curated collections will feature a wide range of titles, including brand new programmes dropping monthly on the service, from July 2023. This new content will span a wide-range of genres and subjects including comedy, gameshows, live action, animation and sport and sourced from a broad spectrum of distributors from small Independents as well as regional UK suppliers.
Craig Morris, Managing Editor of ITVX said:
“We’re really excited to launch this dedicated destination for kids on ITVX, which will be home to a wealth of content including new series, recognisable brands and existing favourites for a range of ages, all in one child-safe area, with editorial curation to guide viewing. The wealth of content will be available to stream for free, with the option for parents to choose ad free viewing, through a subscription to ITVX Premium.”
The exciting range of new shows will complement existing favourites, including
Lloyd of the Flies,
Lily’s Driftwood Bay,
Claude,
Mumfie,
Mystery Lane and
The Rubbish World of Dave Spud, which will also be available on ITVX Kids.
Brand new episodes of The Rubbish World of Dave Spud are commissioned for broadcast in 2024 and they will be premiered on ITVX.
Commissions that ITV was able to greenlight, thanks to funding from the BFI Young Audiences Content Fund which ran until 2022, will also appear on ITVX Kids. These include sustainable arts and craft series Makeaway Takeaway, HOW, highlighting amazing facts, science and historical stories in a fun, fast paced, hands on format, The Sound Collector an animated series narrated by Keira Knightley, about a little boy who has a passion for sound despite being hard of hearing and Happy The Hoglet - which helps pre-schoolers navigate those big emotional rollercoasters that comes with being young.
Accessibility for all children who want to enjoy content is a big priority for ITVX. The ambition is for 100% of content to be subtitled on ITVX Kids, with around 20% of the content on ITVX Kids audio described, and the offering will also include British Sign Language original programming such as Mission Employable and Daremaster, produced by Signpost productions.
As a consequence of this new streaming approach, and responding to the changing ways children and their parents are increasingly accessing content, the CITV broadcast channel will close in early Autumn, once the new streaming destination for kids has been rolled out across platforms and devices, over the summer holidays. However, ITV will maintain the LittleBe pre-school segment on ITVBe and will offer some children’s content in the early mornings on ITV2 from September with strong cross promotion to ITVX.
[end]
Notes to Editors:
*Unmatched viewing = TV set viewing that BARB cannot identify, including gaming, viewing of DVDs, unreferenced channels, SVOD/AVOD and video-sharing services etc. Please note that SVOD/AVOD and video-sharing services have been identifiable by BARB since 2022, but are still included in this definition of unmatched.
###
Paramount+ UK & Ireland is HERE! Stream a Mountain of Entertainment, including your Nickelodeon favourites! Try it FREE at ParamountPlus.com!
Paramount+ is also available with Sky Cinema at no extra cost.
