BBC Four & CBBC to close

[natashajacobs]

Doesn't Tim Davie speech include any mention of Bitesize ambition cut? Because there's already a speculation regarding the fate of Bitesize

Didn’t see it but sure I read somewhere that they were thinking of scaling it back slightly. Honestly to me the bbc is suffering an existential crisis and it seems sometimes they have forgotten about their PSB remit, that they exist not just to be a ‘British Netflix’. To be fair they can’t do anything right in the eyes of their many critics so any decision would be wrong

[Steve Williams]

There have been a couple of comments about this in the other thread, but there is a CBBC strand on BBC2, every Saturday morning.

[natashajacobs]

There have been a couple of comments about this in the other thread, but there is a CBBC strand on BBC2, every Saturday morning.

… which finishes at 8.55 am this coming Saturday and comprises precisely 5 shows

[MrBiggieSMLZ]

To be honest, it would be hard, especially for me to imagine CBeebies without CBBC (on TV). If CBBC was merged with CBeebies, it would personally make more sense.

[AxiosBrit67]

Merging CBBC and CBeebies makes more sense for me since both channels already targeted similar audience and both are originally named as CBBC pre-2002 (or Children's BBC prior to 1997). The merged channels can carry the original CBBC name or having new name, but it will have a impact for BBC Three. BBC3 will no longer sharing similar prequency as the merged channel, instead they become full-pledged general youth-oriented channel. The BBC can think the merger between two kids channels was unlikely, but still very possible.

[TVGuy]

According to a speech from Tim Davies, the BBC won't close BBC Four, CBBC and Radio 4 Extra for at least the next 3 years.
"Over time we expect to consolidate and share more content between services, and expect to stop broadcasting some of our smaller channels on linear. This will include services like BBC Four, CBBC and Radio 4 Extra. But we won’t do this for at least the next three years because for the moment they are still delivering value to millions of viewers and listeners, at low extra cost."
Tim Davies

[simpfeld]

Merging CBBC and CBeebies makes more sense for me since both channels already targeted similar audience and both are originally named as CBBC pre-2002 (or Children's BBC prior to 1997). The merged channels can carried the original CBBC name or having new name, but it will have a impact for BBC Three. BBC3 will no longer sharing similar prequency as the merged channel, instead they become full-pledged general youth-oriented channel. The BBC can think the merger between two kids channels was unlikely, but still very possible.

Not this again. CBBC and CBeebies are for totally different audiences. A 3 year old isn't going to be interested in Blue Peter etc. Also a 13 years old will not be interested in Baby Club.

[neonemesis]

Merging CBBC and CBeebies makes more sense for me since both channels already targeted similar audience and both are originally named as CBBC pre-2002 (or Children's BBC prior to 1997). The merged channels can carry the original CBBC name or having new name, but it will have a impact for BBC Three. BBC3 will no longer sharing similar prequency as the merged channel, instead they become full-pledged general youth-oriented channel. The BBC can think the merger between two kids channels was unlikely, but still very possible.

Completely separate audiences.

[MrBiggieSMLZ]

Merging CBBC and CBeebies makes more sense for me since both channels already targeted similar audience and both are originally named as CBBC pre-2002 (or Children's BBC prior to 1997). The merged channels can carry the original CBBC name or having new name, but it will have a impact for BBC Three. BBC3 will no longer sharing similar prequency as the merged channel, instead they become full-pledged general youth-oriented channel. The BBC can think the merger between two kids channels was unlikely, but still very possible.

Yeah, question is: what could a merged service be called? BBC Junior, perhaps?

[Rex]

Merging CBBC and CBeebies makes more sense for me since both channels already targeted similar audience and both are originally named as CBBC pre-2002 (or Children's BBC prior to 1997). The merged channels can carry the original CBBC name or having new name, but it will have a impact for BBC Three. BBC3 will no longer sharing similar prequency as the merged channel, instead they become full-pledged general youth-oriented channel. The BBC can think the merger between two kids channels was unlikely, but still very possible.

Absolutely not. If BBC4 and CBBC go, they won't need to have that fourth broadcast stream anymore. I also really struggle to see how they can fill BBC Three in daytime; whatever's left out of the old CBBC space, CBeebies will fill it.

[BBCMeridian]

Merging CBBC and CBeebies makes more sense for me since both channels already targeted similar audience and both are originally named as CBBC pre-2002 (or Children's BBC prior to 1997). The merged channels can carried the original CBBC name or having new name, but it will have a impact for BBC Three. BBC3 will no longer sharing similar prequency as the merged channel, instead they become full-pledged general youth-oriented channel. The BBC can think the merger between two kids channels was unlikely, but still very possible.

Not this again. CBBC and CBeebies are for totally different audiences. A 3 year old isn't going to be interested in Blue Peter etc. Also a 13 years old will not be interested in Baby Club.

It's clear to me that you don't know much about the history of the BBC, before 2002 there was no CBeebies, only Children's BBC so all programmes would air in that strand and had it not been for Greg Dyke and Nigel Pickard it probably would've stayed that way, so on that point AxiosBrit67 is right, merging the two channels is much better than having to close one of them.

[thomalex]

One thing I am surprised about is no mention of local radio which at 40 stations in England I've always felt is far too much, especially when there is now so much choice not just with other stations but also music streaming and podcasts. You could slim these down into much larger areas such as BBC North West, BBC North East etc where surely they'd have more impact.

[JetixFann450]

Oh boy, another "MeRgE cBbC aNd CbEeBiEs" thread...

:roll:

[BBCMeridian]

To be absolutely honest, the BBC was at its most highly regarded when it had 2 TV channels and 4 radio stations.

Perhaps they should be focusing on doing less, better.

No way, respectfully I disagree with you, I'm glad the BBC launched News 24 in 1997 Choice and Knowledge in 1998 and other radio stations and international channels, it would've been boring if it was just a corporation of two channels.

[Roger Darthwell]

CBBC itself wrote this
https://twitter.com/cbbc/status/1529855457325731840