CBBC UNVEILS DIGITAL PLANS

IN A speech to BAFTA members on Monday November 19, Nigel Pickard, Controller, CBBC, outlined his plans for the two new children’s digital channels approved by the DCMS.
Announcing a budget of over £40 million, Pickard confirmed a broad and substantial commissioning slate across both channels.
Pickard said: "When the Secretary Of State gave her approval for the two channels, she recognised that public service broadcasting for children was a fundamental necessity for the digital age. She looked to CBBC to create services that would be a legacy from us to future generations of children and that is what we are going to do."
Unveiling his vision for CBBC in the future, Pickard confirmed that the pre-school channel would be called CBEEBIES, with CBBC being retained for the older children’s channel.
"CBBC will reinvent itself for launch, and to ensure that we achieve the greatest impact, we are renaming the channel, giving them their own distinct brand personalities which will also bookmark the services for parents."
Over 700 hours of new programming has so far been commissioned across both the new channels. Combined with the analogue commissions for CBBC this Winter on BBC One and BBC Two, the total number of hours of originally produced programming from CBBC is over 850 hours.
(GB)