CBeebies

CBeebies is a British free-to-air public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content targeted for children aged six years and under. Its sister channel, CBBC, is intended for older children aged six to twelve. It broadcasts every day from 6:00 am to 7:00 pm, timesharing with BBC Four.

History

On 20 November 2001, the CBeebies name was officially revealed as part of the split of the already-existing CBBC block and would be used as both a children's block and a digital channel.

The CBeebies channel launched on 11 February 2002 alongside the CBBC channel, as a spinoff from the BBC's children's television strand. The first four shows to air on the channel were '' Teletubbies'', ''Binka'', '' Step Inside'' and '' Bits and Bobs''. CBeebies domestically broadcasts from 5:30 am to 7:00 pm, broadcasting six days per week. From the launch of the channel until 1 March 2002, CBeebies timeshared with fellow BBC channel BBC Knowledge but since 2 March 2002, it now timeshares with BBC Four, which is on air after CBeebies closes for the night at 7:00 pm.

CBeebies was joined in March 2007 by its own radio station, aptly named ''CBeebies Radio'', which broadcast for three hours each day on BBC Radio 7 until April 2011. CBeebies Radio, however, has continued as a feature on CBeebies' website since 2013, and as a station on BBC Sounds broadcasting from 6:00 am to 10:00 pm. A ''CBeebies Weekly'' magazine, now named just ''CBeebies Magazine'', was first published in 2006.

Since March 2013, CBeebies has been carried by the British Forces Broadcasting Service. CBeebies is also available in Ireland.

In September 2018 as part of a branding strategy, BBC Alba's unbranded two-hour children's block was split into CBeebies Alba and CBBC Alba, with the former airing during the first hour and the latter airing during the second hour. This block features its own presentation, presenters and shows in Scottish Gaelic. The only presenter shared between the CBeebies Alba block and CBeebies channel is Dodge T. Dog, who appears on an occasional basis.

On 15 March 2023, CBeebies rebranded its channel identity, in line with a wider corporate rebranding across the BBC starting in 2021. This was CBeebies' first rebrand, retiring the logo that the channel had used since its launch 21 years earlier. The new style featured a new logo in line with the BBC's 2021 logo, as well as a revamped appearance of the "Bugbie" characters that had been part of the channel's identity since launch.

International and non-English versions

BBC Studios owns and operates the international CBeebies feeds, with most of them operating on a 24-hour schedule (compared to the UK version).

The first international launch for the CBeebies channel was in India in May 2007, although the channel was shut down at the end of November 2012 due to "commercial considerations". The Polish CBeebies channel was launched on 2 December 2007, while feeds in Latin America, East, Southeast Asia, South Africa and Australia were launched in late 2008. In March 2011, an on demand version of the network was launched in the United States and is available on Xfinity.

On 13 May 2011, CBeebies was launched as a programme block on the channel BBC Kids in Canada, available on weekdays between 9:00 am and 3:00 pm. It served a similar schedule to the main channel. The block ceased alongside its main channel on 31 December 2018, with some programmes moving to Knowledge Kids.

In April 2015, BBC Worldwide signed with South Korean broadcaster KBS and Japanese broadcaster Kids Station to launch CBeebies blocks on both channels.

In April 2016, a channel for the MENA region was launched.

On 10 March 2017, CBeebies Asia was launched in Taiwan, replacing BBC Entertainment. CBeebies Asia has already launched in Hong Kong, South Korea, Myanmar, the Philippines, Mongolia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Laos, Maldives, Macau, Sri Lanka and Malaysia. On 13 April 2017, the localised CBeebies feed for Latin America ceased operations along with BBC Earth and BBC Entertainment.

On 5 April 2018, a feed was launched on Digiturk in Turkey.

On 1 December 2019, the Australian feed launched in New Zealand on Sky.

In March 2020, CBeebies launched on Vietnam's television provider Msky.

In July 2020, it was relaunched in India, but with pan-Asian feed in English audio track only.

On 31 October 2020, CBeebies and CBeebies en Español were removed from all cable and satellite providers in the United States.

On 11 January 2022, BBC Kids launched as a FAST channel on Pluto TV in the United States, which airs select CBeebies and CBBC shows from the BBC Studios catalogue. A version of the channel that airs Spanish-dubbed programming titled "Niños por BBC" was launched on the same day. Both channels have since been removed. BBC Kids continues to be available on Samsung TV Plus in the United States.

On 15 December 2022, the Asian feed of CBeebies was launched as a preview channel on Astro, which replaced Boomerang on 1 February 2023.

A planned rebrand for the Polish version of CBeebies was cancelled in March 2024 after the departure of presenter Aneta Piotrowska.

It was announced that CBeebies on Foxtel in Australia would be removed on 31 July 2024, alongside BBC First, BBC Earth, BBC News, and A&E. However, 3 months after the Foxtel shutdown, CBeebies and BBC Kids were removed from Fetch TV on 31 October 2024, marking the end of CBeebies operations in Australia after nearly 16 years.

Management

In the UK, CBeebies is operated by the BBC Children's and Education division and part of BBC North. The division is also responsible for CBBC and overall strategic responsibility for all of the BBC's domestic services for children rests with the Director of Children's and Education, Patricia Hildago Reina (since 2020). The direction of the domestic CBeebies channel itself rested with Kay Benbow, the last Controller of the channel commissioning all CBeebies content across BBC television, online, interactive TV and radio. She took over from the first controller Michael Carrington in 2010. In 2017 it was announced that the CBeebies controller post would close in December 2017 and all content for the CBeebies brand would be commissioned by a new, pan BBC Children's role entitled Head of Content. In January 2021 it was announced that the decision would be reversed, and a new Head of Commissioning and Acquisitions for preschoolers (0–6) would be appointed.

Internationally, CBeebies is owned by BBC Studios, which operate the brand.

Presentation

The links between programmes on CBeebies are primarily achieved through the use of in-vision continuity, using presenters to interact with the children. In the UK, links are recorded rather than broadcast live, as is the case on sister channel CBBC. They were originally recorded from studio TC0 at BBC Television Centre in London, but moved out in 2008 to Teddington Studios, and returned briefly in 2010. From September 2011 onwards, the links have been based at the BBC's northern base at studios HQ5 and HQ6 in Dock10 studios at MediaCityUK following the move of the BBC Children's department there.

As is with the rest of the BBC's channels, there is a lack of advertisements and programmes are occasionally broken up by trailers for new shows, new seasons of said shows or events.

Logo and identities

CBeebies uses many identities throughout the day during the breaks in between shows. Most of these idents feature the mascots, named the Bugs, also known as the Bugbies. The Bugbies are yellow blobs with faces, and are similar to the ones used by CBBC between 2002 and 2005, with the only difference being the colour: green for CBBC and yellow for CBeebies with both using purple as a similarity. Most idents before the late 2010's feature children saying the channel name twice once the logo appears except the Bedtime idents. The idents have used a moving blobby, slimy-like background or rounded shapes in any colour. Each block has its own ident, and the Bedtime Hour has a few different idents. In 2016, new idents were made for each block, replacing the old ones and the slimy moving background idents were rarely shown. Idents featuring the CBeebies House with it changing to effect the current season have been used from 2016 to 2023.

On 15 March 2023, CBeebies underwent a rebranding by Blue Zoo to fully-adopt the BBC's new corporate branding, with the Bugs reimagined in a rounded square-shaped form to evoke the BBC logo, and a new suite of idents and animated scenes incorporating two- and three-dimensional elements.

Programming

Presenters

Live presenters have been on CBeebies since the channel's launch. They are used to fill the gaps between the shows that air on the channel, speaking directly to the child, doing certain activities such as arts and crafts, leading activities based on a topic from the website, showing viewers' birthday cards, and introducing the shows, well as hosting some of the shows. Many of the presenters have histories as characters in other services or on children's programmes.

International Presenters

The international variants feature different personalities per broadcast region.
* The Australian feed is the only non-UK service to feature more than one presenter, as this feed features three presenters. Tara Colegrave has presented since the channel's launch in 2008 and when the continuity links moved from the UK to Australia, she was joined by Robbie Harding and Duncan Fellows in 2011.
* The Asian feed shown in countries like Thailand, Hong Kong and Singapore has Nisha Anil as the main presenter.
* The now-defunct Latin American feed variant had Roser Cabañas as the presenter.
* The Polish channel had Aneta Piotrowska as main presenter from its launch in 2008 until 2024. On some occasions between November 2014 to 2016 Aneta appeared on the UK channel. Polish Wikipedia ''Cbeebies'' article
* The South African feed uses former UK presenter Sid Sloane. Cat Sandion also presented on this feed before becoming a presenter on the UK version.
* The CBeebies Alba block on BBC Alba uses Bard Cornark, Ben Cajee and Carrie Macneil as the presenters.
* The Turkish feed uses the UK presenters (e.g., Cat Sandion and George Webster) dubbed over with Turkish voice actors.

Storytimes

While the lunchtime story is usually read by one of the regular presenters at about 1:00 with an often repeated story, the final show of each day, known as CBeebies Bedtime Stories (known as ''Stòiridh'' in Scottish Gaelic and airing on BBC Alba) is read by a guest storyteller, including well known actors, comedians, athletes, singers/musicians and past presenters of BBC children's television, including David Walliams, Tom Hardy, Ed Sheeran, Steve Carell, Billie Eilish, Ryan Reynolds, Paloma Faith and Jack Black.

CBeebies HD

The channel launched on 10 December 2013, though was rolled-out nationwide up to June 2014 (as did BBC News HD, CBBC HD and BBC Four HD). The channel broadcasts on a commercially operated HD multiplex on Freeview, with limited geographic coverage compared with other multiplexes, and shares its stream with BBC Four HD as they air at different times. Prior to launch, the majority of CBeebies' HD output was broadcast on BBC HD before its closure on 26 March 2013. CBeebies HD was temporarily removed from Freeview as well as BBC Four HD in June 2022, since the COM7 multiplex closed, and the two channels were on COM7, but they were re-added in September 2022.

Other ventures

CBeebies website

The CBeebies website coincided with the launch of the UK channel on 11 February 2002 and showcases a child friendly site with activities themed to various CBeebies programmes, past and present, with games, songs and print-outs featuring for nearly all the shows. The United Kingdom version also features links to CBeebies iPlayer, a child friendly version of the BBC iPlayer site or app featuring CBeebies programmes only, to CBeebies radio player and a dedicated micro site containing advice for raising children and toddlers called CBeebies Grown-ups, which was relaunched in 2011.

The international channels and associated websites are run by BBC Studios. As a result, not all of them are the same and some channels have less extensive websites than other services. CBeebies channels in Asia, Australia, Poland, South Africa and the USA all have their own international variant.

VHS and DVD releases

BBC Video (and later 2Entertain) have released several VHS/DVD compilations featuring shows airing on CBeebies at the time. As of 2014, Abbey Home Media releases the compilations.

Album releases

Five CBeebies-branded CDs have been released, 'CBeebies: The Official Album' in 2002, 'My CBeebies Album' in 2006, 'My CBeebies Album (Christmas Edition)' in 2007, 'CBeebies: Song Time' in 2010, and 'CBeebies: The Album' in 2012.

CBeebies Land

CBeebies Land opened in May 2014. Designed as a retheme of the previous Storybook Land and Old McDonald's Farmyard areas of the Alton Towers theme park, it contains a range of themed rides, attractions and live entertainment based around various popular CBeebies programmes. It offers various indoor and outdoor activities aimed at making an immersive and interactive world for children and young families.

The site based within Alton Towers Resort in Staffordshire includes some of the more popular characters from the original channel for guests to meet. Described as a 'fun environment for pre-schoolers to play and learn' by critics. Before CBeebies Land, Alton Towers did not have enough rides suitable for young children and since opening, CBeebies Land now makes visiting the amusement park exciting for younger children.

At the start of the year, the theme park sporadically released information on the characters involved in the development via their Facebook and Twitter accounts.
* On 4 January, Mr Tumble was the first character confirmed – featuring in the Something Special Sensory Garden and 5 January saw Mr. Bloom confirmed as featuring in the development in the form of Mr Bloom's Allotments.
* On 6 January, the park revealed an In the Night Garden... redesign of their existing Riverbank Eyespy. It features many characters from the show, like Iggle Piggle, Upsy Daisy and Makka Pakka.

The fourth reveal on 7 January was that of Nina and the Neurons It was an interactive science lab.

The latest additions to CBeebies Land were in Spring 2022. In December 2021, it was confirmed that Alton Towers were adding three new attractions to CBeebies Land, there was Hey Duggee: The Big Adventure Badge which replaced Tree Fu Tom Training Camp, Andy's Adventures Dinosaur Dig which replaced Mr Bloom's Alloment and JoJo and GranGran at Home which replaced Charlie and Lola's Moonsquirters & Green drops.

Awards

The UK channel and the programmes it has broadcast have received a number of awards throughout the years. In 2002, the CBeebies Interactive TV Services were nominated in the Best Interactive Service category and CBeebies Online was nominated in the same category in 2005 at the BAFTA Children's Awards. The channel was awarded Best Children's Channel and Highly Commended at the Broadcast Digital Channel Awards 2006, however only achieved a nomination in 2007 and 2008. The channel was also named Children's Channel of the Year at the BAFTA Children's awards in 2006, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2016, 2018 and 2019 and was nominated for Channel of the Year in 2008.

The CBeebies UK website was nominated Best Interactive Site at the 2007 BAFTA Children's awards, and the brand as a whole also won the Best Design and Innovation award by the Royal Television Society, whose awarding panel said "Its website is an integral part of the brand, with its TV production and online teams working together to create innovative game play and immersive web experiences."

Notes

References

External links

* (UK Only)

CBeebies Official YouTube Channel
*

CBeebies Grown Ups

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