{"id":456092,"date":"2026-03-03T23:20:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T23:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/456092\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T23:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T23:20:11","slug":"bbc-says-rivals-childrens-tv-output-shows-alarming-decline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/456092\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC says rivals\u2019 children\u2019s TV output shows \u2018alarming decline\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

The BBC children\u2019s boss has criticised its rivals over an \u201calarming decline\u201d in shows for younger audiences.<\/p>\n

Patricia Hidalgo, director of children\u2019s and education, said the sector was under strain as investment from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 fell by 40 per cent to below \u00a380 million over the 14 years to 2024.<\/p>\n

The amount of original content has halved to less than 400 hours over the same period.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Bagpuss is back \u2014 these 9 classic kids\u2019 shows deserve a reboot too<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cBritish children\u2019s content is at risk,\u201d Hidalgo said. \u201cDomestic commissioning has declined, global players are not investing in UK stories for UK kids and production companies face growing pressure. <\/p>\n

\u201cWithout action, there is a real danger that the next generation will grow up without the culturally rooted, educationally rich and imaginative content they deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added that shows such as Newsround also helped to tackle misinformation and fake news.<\/p>\n

\"Patricia<\/p>\n

Patricia Hidalgo Reina is the BBC\u2019s director of children\u2019s and education<\/p>\n

BBC<\/p>\n

The broadcaster\u2019s Socioeconomic Impact of Children\u2019s and Education report found that the BBC was the most significant commissioner of original children\u2019s content in the UK. <\/p>\n

Shows including Hey Duggee, Horrible Histories<\/a> and The Famous Five generated more than 2 billion iPlayer streams last year. <\/p>\n

\"Illustration<\/p>\n

Hey Duggee is one of the BBC\u2019s most popular shows, amassing more than 1.36 billion streams on iPlayer<\/p>\n

However, its rivals were accused of turning their backs on younger audiences.<\/p>\n

\u201cChannel 4 haven\u2019t commissioned a children\u2019s show in decades; ITV has closed its children\u2019s channel and recently stopped commissioning; and Channel 5\u2019s output is smaller than the BBC\u2019s and serves only the preschool segment of the audience,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith other UK broadcasters, such as Sky, also cutting commissions for children there is an alarming decline in UK-made children\u2019s TV content.\u201d<\/p>\n

While more than 60 per cent of viewing among younger audiences<\/a> takes place on video-sharing and streaming platforms such as YouTube, Netflix and Disney+, they were accused of failing to provide British stories.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The BBC\u2019s adaptation of Enid Blyton\u2019s The Famous Five<\/p>\n

BBC<\/p>\n

The US giants produced only 12 hours of children\u2019s TV content in the UK last year, according to the media regulator Ofcom.<\/p>\n

\u201cStreamers don\u2019t see children as an acquisition audience, they see them as a retention audience,\u201d Hidalgo told MPs on the culture, media and sport committee on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019ve already got 5,000 hours [of children\u2019s content] in your streaming service, you might think, \u2018We don\u2019t need to invest anymore\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

She called for enhanced tax credits to support the sector and a requirement for businesses interested in attracting children\u2019s audiences to \u201cshare responsibility and invest accordingly\u201d.<\/p>\n

Oli Hyatt, the producer behind the BBC\u2019s hits Alphablocks and Numberblocks, agreed with the report\u2019s conclusions but urged the BBC to also prioritise children\u2019s programming.<\/p>\n

\"Oli<\/p>\n

He claimed that children\u2019s programming had suffered proportionately greater cuts than other genres while the BBC grappled with inflationary costs and a real-terms decline in licence fee income.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe BBC once spent a lot more on children and could do again, it\u2019s a choice,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m asking for 5.45 per cent of the BBC\u2019s total first-run UK-originated spend to be locked in for children. They account for 19 per cent of our population. I think that is reasonable.\u201d<\/p>\n

He called for the creation of a \u00a340 million contestable children\u2019s programming pot funded by the government or a levy.<\/p>\n

Greg Childs, director of the Children\u2019s Media Foundation, said social media giants must provide greater prominence to the BBC\u2019s children\u2019s content.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe algorithms on YouTube and other platforms<\/a> are set up to reward attention, not value,\u201d he said. \u201cThey favour frequent posting and creating content that is designed to mesmerise young children through fast cutting and bright colours but does not stretch their imaginations. <\/p>\n

\u201cFor older kids outrage, conflict, dispute are all favoured. Then the algorithm rewards the content by recommending it more often.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the audience migrates to YouTube, the connective power of public service content is constantly diluted, until it becomes irrelevant to an entire generation. And that\u2019s not far away.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The BBC children\u2019s boss has criticised its rivals over an \u201calarming decline\u201d in shows for younger audiences. Patricia…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456093,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[96,391,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-456092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-tv","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456092","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=456092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}