Trust seeks families’ thoughts on CBeebies and CBBC

Octonauts

The BBC Trust has announced a new review of Children’s Services including CBBC and CBeebies.

The review will examine the two dedicated BBC children’s services across TV and online to see how well they are serving their young audiences and ensure they are meeting their service licence requirements.

It will also assess the BBC Executive’s progress on radio for children, including children’s programming on Radio 4 Extra.

As part of this, a public consultation has been launched on the Trust website. The Trust is particularly keen to hear from young viewers, so a dedicated questionnaire has been prepared to enable children to give their feedback. An adult survey will also welcome comments from parents and carers, those who work with children, or anyone with a view on the services.

BBC Trustee Alison Hastings, who is leading the review, said:

The Dumping Ground 2013

“The Trust is committed to ensuring the BBC continues to provide children with high-quality, home-grown programming, which is educational, entertaining and offers an opportunity to bring families together.

“Since our last review in 2009 there have been many developments to the services the BBC provides. For example, we recently saw children’s TV programming move to its dedicated digital home, in line with changing viewing habits.

“We’ll be taking stock to see how well the services are meeting their licence requirements and the expectations of the children and families who watch and listen.”

For CBeebies, CBBC and Radio 4 Extra, the Trust will review the extent they are being used, assess whether they are providing high quality content, are good value for money, and contributing to the BBC’s public purposes. The Trust will also consider how other relevant BBC services (TV, radio and online) plan to serve children under the age of 16, to ensure they are catered for.

The review will look at developments in the children’s media sector including changes to their listening and viewing habits, and will check that the BBC is well-placed to meet the challenges that may result from these changes.

If any areas for improvement are identified, the Trust will make recommendations and will also make any necessary amendments to the service licence to ensure it reflects the future scope of Children’s Services.As well as running a public consultation and commissioning specialist audience research, the Trust will also engage directly with key stakeholders to ensure views from across the wider industry are taken into account.

The full terms of reference for the service review have been published today and are available here

The public consultation on BBC Children’s Services will be open until 31 May. The children’s survey is available here and the survey for adults here. Further guidance for organisations who wish to respond can be found here (PDF file).

Posted by Tracy Thomas

Win a copy of Little Charley Bear ‘Antarctic Charley’ on DVD!

To celebrate the release of Little Charley Bear ‘Antarctic Charley’ on DVD we have 6 copies to give away to 6 lucky winners!

Win a copy of Little Charley Bear 'Antarctic Charley' on DVD!

Cosy up and keep warm this winter as you step into the imaginative world of Little Charley Bear and friends in the latest DVD from the popular CBeebies pre-school series, narrated by new father James Corden (star of Gavin & Stacey). ‘Antarctic Charley’ features six fantastic adventures and is on sale from 30 January 2012, RRP £12.99.

In these latest stories you discover that Charley loves wrapping up in his winter clothes! The only problem is that it’s summer outside, so he heads out on an adventure to the Antarctic to seek out the cold weather. Playing in the snow, Charley gets scared by a penguin that keeps following him. But the Penguin just wants to play! Elsewhere Charley puts his courage to the test, climbing a mountain to save Midge and coming face to face with a shark whilst fishing!

There are 6 copies of Little Charley Bear ‘Antarctic Charley’ on DVD up for grabs for 6 lucky winners. For your chance win a copy just send your name, address and phone number to comps@kidaround.biz and put Little Charley Bear as the subject of your email.

Competition closes 13th February

Good luck!

Posted by Lucy Cook

Brand new CBeebies character showcased at firstsite!

Firstsite are delighted to host artist Steve Roberts and Ragdoll Producer Chris Wood to showcase their brand new CBeebies character Dipdap, from the hit show for toddlers.

Dipdap is a three-minute comic animation featuring a simple drawn line that creates endless challenges and surprises for the unsuspecting little character, Dipdap.

This half term at firstsite, families can watch the animation, see the artist draw live – and try their hand at drawing with Dipdap.

The Dipdap event takes place on Tuesday 25 October. There are four sessions at 10am, 11am, 12 noon and 2pm. Each session lasts around 45 minutes.

Throughout half term, firstsite is also offering FREE drop-in sessions for families and children as part of The Big Draw month.

These sessions take place 10am – 4pm, Monday 24 to Friday 28 October, and 12 noon – 4pm on Saturday 29 and Sunday 30 October. All sessions are free and no booking is required but children must be accompanied by an adult.

For more information go to http://www.firstsite.uk.net/

Posted by Emily Richardson