CBBC

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CBBC (a contraction of the original name, Children's BBC, short for Children's British Broadcasting Corporation) is the brand name used for the BBC's children's television programmes, and currently specifically refers to those programmes aimed at children. Prior to being refocused solely on the 6-10 group the CBBC/Children's BBC name was used to refer to all of the BBC's output for under-10s; the tightening in focus followed the launch of dedicated sub-brands for preschool-age children (CBeebies) and later for teenagers (BBC Switch). CBBC currently broadcasts as a 12-hour-a-day digital channel (the CBBC Channel) available on most UK digital platforms from 7am to 7pm. The brand is also used for the broadcast of children's programmes on BBC One (weekday afternoons) and BBC Two (mornings, daily). CBBC programmes are also broadcast in high definition alongside other BBC content on the BBC HD channel, generally from 3:30pm to 7pm on weekends, unless the channel is covering other events. BBC-produced children's programming, in native languages of Scotland and Wales, also airs on BBC Alba and S4C respectively. CBBC is operated by the "BBC Children's" division of the BBC's production arm BBC Vision. The division is managed in the East Tower of BBC Television Centre in London, where since 2008, continuity links have been broadcast from. BBC Children's is set to move to Salford Quays MediaCityUK development as part of the relocation of several BBC departments to the North of England in the coming years. The BBC Children's division also operates CBeebies and BBC Switch. The management structure of the division is that ultimate oversight of the wider Children's division is in the hands of the Controller of Children's, Joe Godwin (since late 2009) with creative and editorial decisions being made by a Creative Director of each of the three units; the current creative director of CBBC is Damian Kavanagh. Some CBBC programmes are produced in London, with others coming from studio bases or other locations around the UK.

History

Children's BBC was introduced on 9th September 1985 with the launch of a dedicated block of programme presentation aimed at younger viewers; previously the BBC had broadcast children's programming using BBC1's team of regular duty announcers. The launch presenter for this block, and thus the first Children's BBC presenter of the current format, was Phillip Schofield. During the 1990s, Children's BBC began to be referred to informally on-air as 'CBBC' (this occurred at around the same time that ITV's rival service "Children's ITV" began to be referred to as CITV in a similar manner). The official billing name of Children's BBC remained in place, however, until the BBC's network-wide branding refreshment of October 1997, when the official on-air branding changed to CBBC. (CITV officially adopted their short name in their own branding refresh the following year). The first children-specific strand on BBC television was For The Children, first broadcast on what was then the single 'BBC Television Service' on Saturday 24 April 1937; it was only ten minutes long. It lasted for two years before being taken off air when the service closed due to the Second World War in September 1939. Following the war, For The Children recommenced on Sunday 7th July 1946, with a twenty minute slot every Sunday afternoon and the addition of programmes for pre-school children under the banner For The Very Young. In 1952, the "For The Children" / "For The Very Young" branding was dropped; older children's programmes (such as Blue Peter) would now be introduced by regular announcers whilst younger children's programming was broadcast under the Watch With Mother banner. The 1964 launch of BBC Two allowed additional room for children's programming with an edition of Play School technically being the first official programme to air on BBC Two due to a power cut blacking out most of the previous night's programming. On 1 October 1980, Watch With Mother was replaced by See-Saw; five years later, it moved to BBC2. Meanwhile, weekday afternoon children's programmes on BBC One were introduced by the usual off-screen continuity announcer, though often specially-designed menus and captions would be used. This ended on Monday 9th September 1985, when Children's BBC, a new format with in-vision continuity announcers, was launched. This initially encompassed programming on BBC One between 3:50 and 5:35pm. By the mid/late 1980s, a pattern was established whereby BBC1, following the introduction of its daytime schedules and the move of schools' programmes to BBC2, would broadcast a 25-minute block at circa 10am usually including the 'main' pre-school show (Play School, then from 1988 Playbus/Playdays) and children's birthday cards; BBC2 would show a 5-10 minute programme or programmes at circa 1pm (again aimed at preschoolers, and for a time introduced with a white-background variant of the Children's BBC logo), before BBC1 ran the main afternoon block aimed at older children. Weekend programmes consisted chiefly of Saturday morning programmes on BBC1, such as Going Live!. Children's BBC would also broadcast on weekday mornings during school holidays on either BBC1 or 2. Further changes to the schedule were rolled out during the 1990s and 2000s, including the introduction of Sunday morning programmes on BBC Two, initially in the Open University's summer break and then subsequently year-round; the introduction of a regular weekday morning 'breakfast show' format, also on Two; the relocation of the 10am pre-school slot to BBC Two and the relocation of the 1pm pre-school slot to run on BBC One at the start of the afternoon block. The launch of digital channel BBC Choice in 1998 saw the channel broadcasting children's programming in a Saturday afternoon slot; subsequently this was replaced by the daily 6am-7pm service CBBC On Choice, which aired archive pre-school programming and was itself the precursor of the current CBBC Channel and CBeebies services. The current general schedule for children's shows on BBC terrestrial TV is as follows:

• CBeebies content (ages 0–6) from 6am-7am every morning (BBC Two weekday mornings), 8.30am-11.35am (BBC Two weekdays) and 3.05-3.25pm (BBC One weekdays) varies.
• CBBC content (ages 6–16) from 7am-8.30am BBC Two (weekdays), 7am-12pm BBC Two (Saturdays), 7am-10am BBC Two (Sundays) and 3.05-5.15pm BBC One (weekdays).

These schedules are subject to change, particularly around holiday times; the current holiday-time arrangement. In 2009, a report published by the BBC Trust found that scheduling changes which took place in February 2008, where programming ended at 17:15, had led to a decrease in viewers. This was especially noticeable for Blue Peter and Newsround, two of CBBC's flagship programmes; Blue Peter is now recording its lowest viewing numbers since it started in 1958, and Newsround now receives fewer than 100,000 viewers compared to 225,000 in 2007. The changes were made following the BBC's loss of the rights to soap opera Neighbours, which had for many years been broadcast between the end of CBBC and the start of the 6pm news; when the decision to move daytime editions of The Weakest Link from BBC Two to One to fill the gap, CBBC had to move to an earlier slot, as Weakest Link" is longer than Neighbours was.

Programming

:Main article: List of BBC children's television programmes CBBC produces a wide range of programme types, including drama, news, entertainment, and documentary and factual programming. CBBC therefore is often seen as offering a similar mix of formats to the wider BBC, albeit tailored to suit a young audience. Byker Grove was one of the very few shows that was not aimed at young children, rather a more teenage/young adult audience as it dealt with some controversial themes. The longest-running CBBC programme is the magazine show Blue Peter. Other notable current and former CBBC programmes include Grange Hill, Newsround, Live & Kicking and recent hit The Story of Tracy Beaker.

Presentation

Template:Further From its launch in 1985 until 1994, Children's BBC was presented from the regular continuity announcer's booth in the BBC1 network control area, which had a fixed camera so that the presenter could appear in vision; as it remained an operational continuity booth, the presenter would partly direct their own links by way of vision and sound mixers built into the studio desk. The booth became known as 'the Broom Cupboard' due to its small size (the term was first used to refer to a smaller temporary booth, but was later retroactively applied to the main booth). The plain booth wall behind the presenter would be livened up with elements of set dressing, VT monitors and pictures sent in by viewers. Occasionally, when Children's BBC was going out on BBC2 rather than 1 due to events coverage, the presenter would be located in the BBC2 continuity booth, which was not set dressed for Children's BBC, for transmission purposes. There were two presentation studios - larger than the Broom Cupboards but smaller than full programme studios - known as Pres A and Pres B. It was not initially thought economically viable to use these for daily Children's BBC links, hence the use of the Broom Cupboard. However, by 1987 these studios were being used for the mid-morning 'birthday card' slots and weekend and holiday morning strands such as 'But First This". The main afternoon strand remained in the Broom Cupboard. In 1994, Pres A was refurbished and became the regular home for all Children's BBC presentation including the weekday afternoon block; the presenters no longer had to self-op the broadcast equipment (although a broom cupboard-style area in the corner of Pres A contained its own mixer was used for the birthday slot and weekend mornings to save on crew), and the larger set allowed for more dynamic presentation, with more presenters, characters, features, games and guests. A new 3D version of the then logo of Children's BBC was commissioned to mark the move. In 1997, Children's BBC moved again when 'Studio A' was decommissioned and CBBC moved to the purpose-built Studio 9 (officially 'TC9'), adjacent to the Blue Peter garden at BBC Television Centre. The first broadcasts from Studio 9 were in June 1997; this was followed in October by the launch of the new-look CBBC branding. TC9 continued to be the regular home of CBBC broadcasts on BBC One and Two until 2005 and was also used to record CBBC On Choice links between 2000 and 2002. In 2002, TC2 became the home of CBBC Channel links, plus the channel's XChange and UK Top 40 programmes, whilst CBeebies operated from the smaller TC0. (CBeebies remained in TC0 until moving to Teddington in 2008). In Autumn 2004 the studio arrangements for CBBC were changed again. The CBBC Channel moved from TC2 to TC9, with BBC One / Two links and the UK Top 40 show moving to TC10 - formerly news studio N1 - located on the sixth floor of TV Centre. BBC One and Two links then moved back into TC9 alongside CBBC Channel in March 2006 as the number of studios available to CBBC was reduced. In December 2006, there was a further reduction in CBBC facilities. A CSO set was assembled in TC12, becoming the home of all CBBC links on BBC One, BBC Two and CBBC Channel until September 2007. There was also a reduction in the team of on air presenters. The last live CBBC links from TC9 were broadcast on Friday 1st December 2006; the studio was then mothballed but has since been brought back into use for individual programmes including TMi and SMart. On 3rd September 2007, the CSO studio was dropped in a relaunch which saw a small studio set built in TC12. As part of the relaunch, new logos, presenters and idents were introduced. The design of the new 'office' set has been compared to the original 'broom cupboard', though unlike the 'broom cupboard' the 'office' is not a functioning continuity suite.

Current presenters

• Chris Johnson (Mornings and afternoons)
• London Hughes (Mornings and afternoons)
• Iain Stirling

The presenters are usually accompanied by puppet characters 'Hacker T. Dog' (puppeteered by Phil Fletcher), 'Dodge T. Dog' (puppeteered by Warwick Brownlow Pike) and 'Crab E Crab'.

Former presenters

Former continuity presenters have included Phillip Schofield, Andy Crane, Simon Parkin, Andi Peters, Philippa Forrester, Toby Anstis, Zoë Ball, Josie D'Arby, Simeon Courtie, Kirsten O'Brien, Chris Jarvis, Ana Boulter, Angellica Bell, Andrew Hayden-Smith, Gemma Hunt, Liam Dolan, Richard McCourt, Dominic Wood, Michael Underwood, Sophie McDonnell, Matt Edmondson, Anne Foy, Simon Grant, Holly Walsh, Ed Petrie and Oucho T. Cactus. Guest and relief continuity presenters have included Adam Fleming, Sam Nixon, Mark Rhodes and Dani Harmer.

Logos and idents

:Main article: History of BBC television idents#CBBC The channel's graphics were redesigned, with a green and white logo, will replace a new yellow background logo and laughing, EBS's Tell Me Tell Me Ping and Pong rabbit mascots, that are operated in the channel's ad bumpers and channel idents. The background music is called "Sugar, Sugar", sung by The Archies and composed by Jeff Barry and Andy Kim. CBBC and CBeebies merged into one channel on 21 August 2012, with the teenager's programming slot TBBC taking The original version of CBeebies's channel slot as a separate channel.

Online

The CBBC website is a fun place especially created for kids aged 6–12. It houses all sorts of great content such as games, clips, music, jokes, fun print outs, safe pre-moderated message boards, votes and frequently updated news feeds from Newsround. Kids can find all their favourite characters and shows from CBBC such as Tracy Beaker, Deadly 60, Sarah Jane Adventures, Horrible Histories, Shaun the Sheep, Roar, Blue Peter, Trapped as well as cartoons such as Dennis the Menace, Arthur and Scooby Doo. Beakerise yourself with the Beakeriser -http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/tracybeaker/funandgames/ Play Pupstars with Hacker & Dodge - http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/games/pup-stars-game Let Rip with Dick & Dom - http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/games/dick-and-dom-let-rip-game Scooby Doo Paper Pals - http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/printgames/scooby-doo-paper-pals http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/ ==Other services==

CBBC Extra

CBBC Extra is a free interactive television service from CBBC provided by BBC Red Button. It is accessible from the CBBC Channel by pressing red and then selecting CBBC Extra. It can also be accessed from any other BBC channel by pressing red and going to page number 570. The service differs across digital platforms, for example digital satellite (i.e.: Sky) viewers can access a video loop. Its availability on digital terrestrial (Freeview) is dependent upon BBC Red Button not showing other interactive services, such as major sports events coverage.

CBBC Quiz

This feature allows the viewers to play a quiz. Viewers can also send in their question which could be shown to the nation. There are 5 levels, each containing 5 questions. CBBC Quiz can be found by pressing the red button on a BBC television channel and keying in page 570. Viewers then arrive at CBBC Blob Service and can then select the option that reads CBBC Quiz. Alternatively, viewers can tune in to the CBBC Channel, press the red button and select CBBC Quiz from the main menu.

CBBC website

See above.

External links

• Template:Bbc.co.uk
• "And Now, For Younger Viewers..." A history of CBBC continuity from 1985 to 1994, from Off The Telly
• The Broom Cupboard.co.uk, a history of CBBC continuity from 1985 to 1992, with over 150 pictures
• BBC considers end of children's shows on BBC 1 (Guardian)