BBC Kids
Programming
Language(s)English
Ownership
OwnerBBC Studios

BBC Kids is the international children's brand of BBC Studios,[1] and has been applied to a number of TV services. It draws from the long history of children's programming on the BBC, and is strongly related to the CBBC channel in the United Kingdom.

History

Canada

Main article: BBC Kids (Canadian TV channel)

The BBC Kids brand was first introduced in Canada with the launch of the BBC Kids channel on November 5, 2001. It was described as a specialty television service devoted to educational and entertaining programming for children and youth (ages 2-17). Most of the channel's programming was from the UK.[2] The channel was a joint venture between Alliance Atlantis and BBC Worldwide, the BBC's overseas operating arm.[3][4]

Control was eventually transferred to Knowledge Network Corporation, a Crown corporation of the Government of British Columbia with BBC Worldwide retaining its existing interest.[5] On October 2, 2018, a joint statement from Knowledge Network and BBC announced the channel would cease operations at the stroke of midnight on January 1, 2019. The channel's license was revoked by the CRTC on January 10, 2019 at the request of Knowledge.[6]

Australia

Main article: BBC Kids (Australian TV channel)

BBC Kids launched on 24 April 2021 on Fetch TV in response to Cartoon Network and Boomerang entering an exclusivity agreement with Foxtel and departing the Fetch lineup.[7] This complemented an existing CBeebies channel available in Australia, catering to children aged 0 to 6. The show was launched with popular childrens shows from the UK.[8]

Online services

On January 11, 2022, BBC Studios added BBC Kids as an additional channel to the Pluto TV platform in the United States, both in English (as "BBC Kids") and in Spanish (as "Niños por BBC").[9]

Taiwan Mobile myVideo has become the first streaming platform in Asia to launch BBC Kids as a Video on Demand channel, which was launched on July 1, 2022. The channel has included titles that had been previously aired on CBeebies Asia to bring along other titles that was tailored for kids audiences, such as Spy in the Wild and Deadly 60.[10]

A BBC Kids subscription app service with 100 hours of content became available in South Africa in September 2022, through a partnership of Switch Media and MTN Group.[11]

Distribution

Current distribution

Launch date Country
April 24, 2021  Australia
January 11, 2022  United States
July 1, 2022  Taiwan
September 1, 2022  South Africa

Former distribution

Launch date Closed Country
November 5, 2001 December 31, 2018  Canada

References

  1. ^ "Princess Mirror-Belle returns to CBBC November 21st". BBC. Retrieved 21 November 2022.
  2. ^ "Decision CRTC 2000-493". Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. 24 November 2000.
  3. ^ "Dates set for BBC Canada and BBC Kids launches". C21 Media. 9 March 2001.
  4. ^ "BBC Worldwide Annual Review 2001/2 – Highlights" (Press release). BBC. 17 July 2002.
  5. ^ "BBC Worldwide Partners with Knowledge Network to Operate BBC Kids". Broadcaster Magazine. 17 January 2011. Archived from the original on 22 July 2012. Retrieved 17 January 2011.
  6. ^ Government of Canada, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) (10 January 2019). "BBC Kids – Revocation of licence". crtc.gc.ca.
  7. ^ Perry, Kevin (22 March 2021). "FETCH adds BBC Kids and Nick Music after FOXTEL secures WB channels". TV Blackbox. Archived from the original on 24 March 2021. Retrieved 6 April 2021.
  8. ^ "BBC Kids and Nick Music to join Fetch". Mumbrella. 22 March 2021. Archived from the original on 24 March 2021. Retrieved 6 April 2021.
  9. ^ Shah, Zeenya. "BBC Studios brings two kids channels to Pluto". Kidscreen.
  10. ^ "BBC Studios旗下兒童品牌BBC Kids搶進亞洲 7/1上線MyVideo 超人氣作品《阿奇幼幼園》《莎拉與乖乖鴨》《動物秘密一籮筐》陪孩子過暑假". Taiwan Mobile myVideo (in Chinese). 30 June 2022. Retrieved 4 July 2022.
  11. ^ "BBC Kids to launch in South Africa". Retrieved 16 November 2022.

External links

BBC Television
Categories