Freeview<\/a> and the accompanying POP Player shutting down, there is only CBBC, CBeebies and Milkshake! on Channel 5 left as the last remaining traditional children’s channels.\n<\/p>\n\n Narrative Entertainment say they were forced into making the move after a collapse in commercial viability.\n<\/p>\n
\n Narrative MD Paul Dunthorne said: \u201cWe\u2019ve taken the decision to close our linear POP channels at the end of the year.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe understand the importance of offering high-quality kids\u2019 TV, and we\u2019ve done everything that we can to maintain POP.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cBut free-to-air channels for this audience are simply not commercially viable without public service broadcaster-style funding.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n However, not all of its channels are closing for good, with its FAST service remaining available to those with internet-connected Freeview, Samsung and LG smart TVs.\n<\/p>\n
\n The director in charge of the POP channels will remain in place to oversee the FAST portfolio.\n<\/p>\n
Recommended Reading:<\/p>\n
\n This is said to come at a time when children are increasingly turning away from traditional television in favour of online content.\n<\/p>\n
\n Social media has proven particularly popular, with many young people opting to watch shows on YouTube.\n<\/p>\n
\n This comes after Virgin Media decided to add new channels to its offering, with Tingray Classica and Stingray DJAZZ showing classical music, opera and ballet performances, as well as jazz concerts, films and artist profiles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Free-to-air channels POP and Tiny POP have been pulled from Freeview and other platforms, with these closures bringing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311693,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[96,391,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-311692","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-tv","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}