CBBC

CBBC (a contraction of the original name Children's BBC) is one of two brand names used for the BBC's children's television strands. Between 1985 and 2002, CBBC was the name given to all the BBC's programmes on TV for children aged under 14. Today, CBBC is joined by two dedicated digital channels, launched in 2002 and using the same brands and presentation and the programme strands.

CBBC is the name given to the digital channel for children aged 6–12, and also the brand used for CBBC programming on BBC One and BBC Two. CBeebies is the digital channel for children aged under 6, and also airs its own strand on BBC One and Two. In 2006, as part of the BBCs Creative Futures strategic review, the CBBC brand was redefined as being for children aged 6–12. A new brand for teenagers, BBC Switch, was launched in 2007 and ended in 2010, though this did not have a dedicated channel and was not part of the BBC Children's division.

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), although these strands are to be phased out by the end of 2012, as part of the BBC's "Delivering Quality First" cost-cutting initiative. 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.

History
The BBC has produced and broadcast programmes for children since the 1930s. 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 7 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., and over the years they became an established feature of the early afternoons on the BBC's main channel BBC One.

In 1952, the "For The Children" / "For The Very Young" branding was dropped; older children's programmes (such as Blue Peter 1958) 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, which was moved to BBC2 five years later.

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. On 9 September 1985, this long-standing block of children's programming was rebranded as Children's BBC, and for the first time the children's block had dedicated idents and an in-vision presenter. 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 refresh 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).

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 BBC 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 which was subsequently 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.

In 2002, the launch of the CBBC Channel and the CBeebies Channel saw a wide variety of programmes, both new and archive, being shown again on the new channels from 6/7am until 7pm.

In 2005, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Tessa Jowell, was questioned in the House of Commons as to whether a public service broadcaster should really be broadcasting "lavatorial" humour. Ms Jowell responded that it was the Government's job to develop a charter for the BBC; and then the BBC's job to determine standards of taste, decency and appropriateness.

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.

As part of the Delivering Quality First proposals submitted by the BBC in October 2011 and approved by the BBC Trust in May 2012, all children's programming on BBC One and Two would be moved permanently to the CBBC and CBeebies channels following the digital switchover. It was found that the majority of child viewers watched the programmes on these channels already and that only 7% of these children watched CBBC programmes on BBC One and Two only.

Management
CBBC is operated by the BBC Children's division, part of BBC North. The division relocated to MediaCityUK in Salford Quays in May 2011, after being based in the East Tower of TV Centre in London since 1964. Management of the division, and broadcast and production of presentation links for CBBC and CBeebies is now based there. In September 2011 flagship magazine show Blue Peter began live broadcasts from its new home, with daily news programme Newsround joining it in November 2011.

The BBC Children's division also operates CBeebies. Overall strategic responsibility for all of the BBC's services for children rests with the Director of Children's, Joe Godwin (since late 2009), with commissioning decisions for the two channels being made by a Controller of each channel; Daian Kavanagh (since 2009) is Controller of CBBC , and Kay Benbow (since 2010) is Controller of CBeebies.

Scheduling
The original scheduling from the mid/late 1980s consisted of a routine whereby BBC1 would broadcast a 25-minute block at around 10:00 usually including the 'main' pre-school show (Play School, then from 1988 Playbus/Playdays) and children's birthday cards, with BBC2 showing a 5-10 minute programme or programmes at around 13:00, 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, which was done under the But First This banner for a time.

This schedule altered little throughout the 1990s, with the introduction of Sunday morning programming and a full breakfast show being the only changes. The current general schedule for children's shows on BBC terrestrial TV is as follows:
 * CBeebies content (under 6) from 06:00 - 07:00 every morning on BBC Two and from 08:30 - 11:35 on BBC Two weekdays.
 * CBBC content (ages 6–12) from 07:00 - 08:30 on BBC Two (weekdays), 07:00 - 12:00 on BBC Two (Saturdays), 07:00 - 10:00 on BBC Two (Sundays) and 15:05- 17:15 on BBC One (weekdays).

These schedules are subject to change, particularly around holiday times; the current holiday-time arrangement.

Programming
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 programmes include Grange Hill, Newsround, Live & Kicking and recent hit Tracy Beaker Returns.

Studio set
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 operate 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 'Pres A' was decommissioned and CBBC moved to the purpose-built Studio 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.

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 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 chroma key 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 1 December 2006; the studio was then mothballed but has since been brought back into use for individual programmes including TMi and SMart.

On 3 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. CBBC presentation originated from Studio HQ5 at MediaCityUK in Salford Quays for the first time on Monday 5 September 2011 as part of the relocation of the BBC's Children's department (incorporating both CBBC and CBeebies).

In May 2012, Daniella Brogues announced her break from presenting on the channel from September 2012 to January 2013 to present new projects. Daniella has been on the team for more than two years and started her placement in August 2010. No presenter has been confirmed to take her place but it has been rumoured that Ben Hanlin will replace her presenting slot.

Former presenters

 * Phillip Schofield (1985–1987)
 * Andy Crane (1986–1990)
 * Simon Parkin (1987–1992)
 * Andi Peters (1989–1993)
 * Philippa Forrester (1990–1994)
 * Toby Anstis (1992–1995)
 * Zoë Ball (1993–1995)
 * Josie D'Arby (1994–1997)
 * Simeon Courtie (1995–1996)
 * Kirsten O'Brien (1996–1999)


 * Chris Jarvis (1993–1997)
 * Ana Boulter (1998–2001)
 * Angellica Bell (2000–2006)
 * Andrew Hayden-Smith (2002–2006)
 * Gemma Hunt (2002–2007)
 * Liam Dolan (2001–2002)
 * Richard McCourt (1996–1999)
 * Dominic Wood (1996–1998)
 * Michael Underwood (1999–2002)
 * Sophie McDonnell (2002–2006)


 * Matt Edmondson (2004–2006)
 * Anne Foy (2003–2008)
 * Simon Grant (2002–2006)
 * Ed Petrie (2007–2010)
 * Oucho T. Cactus (2007–2010)
 * London Hughes (2010–2011)

History
The CBBC strand was originally launched on 9 September 1985 on BBC One, and was eventually launched as a separate channel running alongside the strand in 2002 on all major platforms. It had to share bandwidth with another channel on the DTT platform: this was initially BBC Knowledge on the ITV Digital platform, but following their collapse, the channel shared bandwidth with BBC Choice on the replacement system Freeview. In both cases, the channels could be accessed by separate numbers.

From launch, the channel was notably separate from the strand it was created from. While on screen both used the same logos and many of the same presenters, the studios were different: the new channel using TC2 while the strand used the purpose built TC9. TC2 however was shared by the channel so other programmes, such as short Newsround bulletins, as well as the magazine show Xchange also came from the studio.

Throughout the channel's life, the channel became less and less distinctive from its strand counterpart and resources were reduced: the continuity presenters were reduced in number from two to one, with Simon Grant, Matt Edmondson and Angellica Bell leaving as CBBC studio presenters without being replaced, and the studios were replaced with a Colour separation overlay (CSO) set in studio TC12. In 2007, the BBC confirmed plans for a major rebrand of CBBC, with new channel idents and presentation launching on 3 September 2007.

Towards the latter part of its life, the channel has increased its accessibility to its audience: the new look links the service to the website heavily, and the rebrand of the website in 2011 has increased this access. On 22 August 2008, the BBC Press Office announced that the channel would be available live on the CBBC website from 16 September, with the possibility that the channels hours may extend to 9.00pm being announced as part of the BBC's review in strategy on 2 March 2010. CBBC's reach further expanded with the addition of the channel on the Sky EPG in the Republic of Ireland on 12 May 2011. On the same day BBC Three, BBC Four and CBeebies were also added to the Irish EPG.

Management
Along with CBBC, the CBBC channel is operated by the BBC Children's department within the BBC and is part of the BBC North group. BBC Children's was originally based in the East Tower of BBC Television Centre since the departments inception, but moved to MediaCityUK in Salford in September 2011, and the live presentation links used throughout the day are now recorded and broadcast from there. The channel is answerable to the CBBC Channel controller Damian Kavanagh, in post since 2009, and to the director of BBC Children's Joe Godwin, appointed in 2009 and in charge of the whole direction of the channel and its strand counterpart.

Programming
The CBBC channel's programming output is very similar to the strand shown on BBC One and Two. The channel often complements this strand with programmes shown earlier than on the terrestrial channels, repeats or whole series shown in a day, alongside other exclusive commissions.

Most Watched Programmes
The following is a list of the ten most watched shows on the CBBC Channel, based on Live +7 data supplied by BARB from 1 January 2005 to 8 July 2012.

Class TV
As part of the channel's original remit, the channel originally needed to show 100 hours a year of factual and schools programmes. The service managed this by introducing the Class TV strand to the channel, which would air educational programming for approximately two hours each day in the late morning, with normal programming resuming in the early afternoon. Much of this programming was old BBC Schools programming shown, in some cases, decades before and which was for the most part still relevant. Very little new schools programmes were commissioned.

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 Extra also had a feature called CBBC Quiz. This feature allows the viewers to play a quiz and for viewers to send in their question which could be shown to the nation. There are 5 levels, each containing 5 questions.

CBBC UK VHS Releases
Numerous CBBC Programmes have been released on VHS by BBC Video. Video releases either contained numerous videos from one particular programme, or were a compilation tape of numerous episodes from lots of different programmes. A list of these compilation tapes is shown below.

CBBC website
The CBBC website provides a wide range of activities for children aged 6–12, such as games, videos, puzzles, print and makes, pre-moderated message boards. It also contains a TV guide and an area where kids can apply to be on a show. It provides content for all brands including Horrible Histories, Shaun the Sheep, Blue Peter, Newsround, Tracy Beaker, Sadie J, Young Dracula and Dick and Dom. It also gives kids the chance to view the CBBC iPlayer to replay CBBC programmes for up to seven days. www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc