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C³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ and CBeebies are performing well and are much-loved by children and parents alike, a review by the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Trust has found.

However, the challenge will be to maintain the reach and impact of the two channels while keeping up with children's changing media consumption habits. The ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ should also ensure it is serving children within the target audiences who feel they are too old or too young for the content on the two dedicated channels.

The ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's services for children were reviewed by the Trust as part of its rolling programme examining each ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ service at least once every five years. This review looked at C³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ, CBeebies, and the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's radio and online content for children.

More than 8,000 children sent their views to the Trust through a special consultation for 6 to 12 year olds, along with 2,700 parents or carers who contributed to the adult consultation. CBeebies attracted overwhelming praise from parents for its high-quality content and its focus on learning and development; C³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ was also commended for its distinctive content and the balance it provides between education and entertainment.

However, the review found that, as was the case with the Trust's last review of children's services in 2009, older children are less inclined to watch C³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ or CBeebies, and C³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ struggles to inherit younger viewers moving on from CBeebies. The Trust supports the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's plans to address these concerns, including commissioning more content for older children, and CBeebies and C³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ working together to provide a more joined-up offer.

Online, the C³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ and CBeebies websites regularly score highest on quality of all ten ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ websites, and performance of the C³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ website has improved since the Trust's 2009 recommendation that the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ should address the site's declining usage levels. However, today's report identifies some concerns about the online content falling behind children's consumption habits, as more and more want and expect to access content on-demand, on tablets and other mobile devices. Trustees have welcomed the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's plans to address these issues, including the recent launch of the CBeebies Playtime app.

³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Trustee Alison Hastings said:

"We heard an overwhelming amount of praise for the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's children's services, both from their young audiences and from adults, and it's clear that CBeebies and C³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ have earned their place at the heart of many families' viewing habits. The challenge for the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ is to keep pace with change and make sure it's providing programmes, information, apps and other content when and where children want and expect it – we're encouraged by the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's on-going work to tackle these challenges and we'll expect to see progress being made in the coming months."

On radio, the Trust supports the current scope of the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's provision for children through a daily programme on Radio 4 Extra, and CBeebies Radio via the CBeebies website, but has asked the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Executive to find more ways to promote these services and to provide an update on this within six months.

The Trust has also concluded that it would like to see the other ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ services across TV, radio and online do more to consider children as an audience for its mainstream output, and to continue to seek opportunities to include ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Children's output as part of their own, such as the recent broadcast of C³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's Wolfblood on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Three.

The ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Executive has already put plans in place to address the issues identified by the review and the Trust has asked for regular updates on the progress of these.

The review included a consultation aimed at children and one for adults, specialist audience research with children, contributions from stakeholder organisations and the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Executive.

Notes to Editors

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1. This is the second review the Trust has carried out of the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's services for children. The first was published in 2009.
2. More information on the Trust's programme of service reviews.
3. Some examples of the consultation responses from children aged 6 to 12, which can be found in the consultation analysis also published today:

"I love C³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ because it's got great programmes for your age and you can send in emails and communicate with the presenters and it's really fun to watch the programmes especially because there are loads of new and exciting series and loads of cool stuff" (11-year-old girl)

"I love it as it helps me learnt things about from around the world and people in their amazing stories like the documentaries on the programme of My Life. It also is entertaining. My parents also enjoy some of the programmes such as My Life and Blue Peter" (12-year-old girl)

"(the website is) really tricky to navigate on iPad/tablet but on a computer I think it's really good and very useful." (10-year-old girl)