Chris

This plan sets them on a path to chopping off the bits nobody will miss, nothing more. BBC Four was always hard to fathom because the BBC’s arts output was already well catered for across BBC1 & 2, depending on budget and intended audience. Even now, Imagine is commissioned by BBC1 presumably because there’s no way in hell Yentob would ever admit he’s making a niche product. Attenborough and Cox likewise have such high price tags only BBC1 can justify making them.

CBBC is a lost cause because kids that age don’t watch TV designed for their age group any more. If our family experience is in any way typical they’ll watch a couple of family/adult-ish things with us, usually early evening, but then it’s off to TikTok. If they watch TV later in the evening it’s something like Derry Girls on channel 4, which is aimed a little older than them but is frankly exactly the sort of thing I’d have been watching on BBC2 or channel 4 at their age.

I can see the BBC continuing to make original children’s programmes out of PSB obligation but at the same time I won’t be at all surprised if one or two of their flagship productions - like Blue Peter - make a return to late afternoon on BBC1. But it’s hard to see a future for BBC4 as anything more than branding for arts and documentary box-sets.