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CITV
CountryUnited Kingdom
Ownership
OwnerITV Digital Channels Ltd
(ITV plc)

CITV (short for Children's ITV or Children's Independent Television) is a British television channel from ITV Digital Channels Ltd, a division of ITV plc. It broadcasts content from the CITV archive, as well as commissions and acquisitions. It airs daily from 06:00 to 18:00. The channel has averaged 200,000 viewers everyday having a 0.8 share of the TV audience in the UK.

CITV itself is the programming block on ITV.[1] "Children's ITV" launched on 3 January 1983, featuring pre-recorded (later 'live') in-vision continuity links in between programmes, that came from Central Independent Television's studios in Birmingham.

CITV as a slot airs on Saturday and Sunday mornings on the ITV network from 06:00 to 09:25, as part of the ITV Breakfast timeslot occupied by Daybreak and Lorraine on weekdays. CITV presentation is produced by Granada Television in Manchester, with pre-recorded continuity links voiced by Tim Dann.

History

Watch It! and early years of Children's ITV

Before being known as Children's ITV, the timeslot for children's programmes on the ITV Network was briefly branded as Watch IT!. Watch IT! brand started in December 1980 and was presented by the live continuity announcer in each ITV region. The notion of networking children's continuity was first suggested within ITV as far back as the early 'seventies, but with fierce regional identities prevalent, the idea was stall at the first hurdle and was put off until the late 1970s when the IBA starting complaining most kids shows were not consistent or fully networked. On many occasion ITV station were able to broadcast what ever programmes there wished which meant many non children programme appeared, such as Little house on the prairie. "Watch It!" was conceived by the promotions department at ATV. The logo was a three colour device, and on the derived animations the exclamation mark toggled on alternate frames to give the appearance of reading "Watch ITV". Implementation of the branding differed from region to region although it was always sourced locally and never provided on a network basis, although ATV would provide different animations each season to freshen up what was available to each company. Most companies (e.g. Southern/TVS) and Granada) would use their own station announcers during Watch It! airtime. Central's controller of children's programmes, Lewis Rudd, suggested a different approach to the method of presentation and as a result, the Central promotions department came up with the initial concept for Children's ITV. The new look was devised, and links between programmes were pre-recorded using presenters drawn from the constituent programmes. The networking arrangements were similar to those already in place for the transmission of schools programmes - the links were played out from Central and the component programmes came from the supplying companies. Children's ITV went to air from 3 January 1983, between 1600 and 1715 each weekday afternoon (Watch It! had previously begun at 1615, the extra fifteen minutes being filled by a repeat of one of the pre-school programmes shown at lunchtime the same day). Initially featuring a different presenter each month (usually from children's television) with the links pre-recorded in advance, in a small studio at a London facility called Molinare, using a single locked-off camera. The first set design was a rocket ship and was used for most of 1983, the concept was eventually abandoned, and the set and style of presentation used began to reflect the artist presenting that month or the programme that he/she came from. By 1984 the links were still being recorded but using a common, stylised set known as Network Control. The exterior of this fictitious location also featured in the animations and stings.

Although it worked well on screen, the technical considerations often left the system flawed. With each programme coming from a different source, and each link being pre-recorded, things often went wrong on air. Programmes would be rolled early and the links be cut short. Or programmes would fail to appear and the presenter would be left on screen looking gormless. (Because each link was recorded for the slot available, the presenter would hold the final pose for a further minute so that the transmission controller had something to leave on screen just in case). Pre-recording the links also meant that late schedule changes could not be easily referenced.

In September 1985, the BBC revamped their own children's presentation with the introduction of an unashamed copy of Children's ITV, with the highly original title of "Children's BBC". Using the BBC1 announcer booth at Television Centre, later dubbed "The Broom Cupboard", an unknown called Phillip Schofield single handedly provided links between the usual fayre of Hanna Barbera cartoons, John Craven's Newsround and Blue Peter. This format of a small studio using one single presenter (and an occasional puppet) continued in largely the same format until 1993. The Children's BBC service was very similar to Children's ITV but with one major difference: it was live.

As a result in September 1987, Children's ITV also went live. Using the small presentation studio at their Broad Street studios (which had become available since in-vision continuity for the Central region was dropped), presenters Gary Terzza (a former Central announcer) and Debbie Shore (Page 3 model) presented live links a large set built to look like a transmitting station. Although the studio space was small, the designers' clever use of a plate glass mirror gave the effect of a much larger set. The new live format gave brought a great deal of flexibility - timings could be altered, schedule changes reflected and breakdowns dealt with in a continuous manner. In 1988, the format was refreshed again. A single presenter replaced Terzza and Shore. He was Mark Granger, from Leeds. The Network Control set was replaced by a more offbeat, stylised look. It was a much simpler set design than the one it replaced, but was the first Children's ITV set to include in-vision monitors showing the VT clock of the next schedule item. Granger lasted around a year, although during his holiday leave a presenter was brought in from the Thames series "Freetime". He was Andi Peters, a 19-year old Londoner who later switched to Children's BBC and stayed there for four years.

Stonewall Productions

From 3 April 1989, the independent production company Stonewall Productions won the contract to produce Children's ITV presentation. Stonewall Productions was headed up by Michael Jackson, a Central staffer who used his expertise to prepare a suitable application.

Whereas Central had restricted links to the station's former in-vision presentation studio, Stonewall chose not to use fixed set but instead presented links from various areas of Central's headquarters at Broad Street in Birmingham and utilised a rotating team of presenters which included Clive Warren (now a DJ), Jerry Foulkes (producer), Jeanne Downs (singer), Jerry Foulkes (producer who left CITV on 22 December 1989) and a large puppet dog called Scally.

Central regains control

Central won back the contract to produce the continuity links from 1 April 1991, choosing to revert links back to a small in-vision studio and using one regular presenter, Tommy Boyd. During the 1991-3 era, greater importance was being placed throughout television on promotions (trailers) as a way of effectively detailing areas of the schedule to viewers who might not know about them. The 1993 invitation to tender for the provision of the Children's ITV service specified a minimum number of high quality trailers that the successful applicant must produce over the term of the contract. With a large promotions department, the contract remained with Central.

In February 1993, in-vision presentation was dropped by the new and first Network Centre controller of children's & daytime programming Dawn Airey (a former Central management trainee) with Steven Ryde providing out-of-vision continuity links featuring a wide variety of animated characters. On 6 September 1993, CITV was extended to start at 15.30, when ITV network centre decided to moved the pre-school children slot from 12.10, to be branded under the CITV in the afternoon slot. Around the same time, the Children's ITV name was changed to CITV, having been used in some form or another since the previous year. However, the Children's wasn't removed from the logo until September 1996, the same month a Digital On-screen Graphic (DOG) was introduced.

Presentation for the service was moved in 1997 when Central moved into new, smaller studios at Gas Street Studios in Birmingham, which continued until Tuesday 26 May 1998, when a new in-vision service was introduced by the new controller of ITV children's output, Nigel Pickard. Steven Ryde became a producer with Stephen Mulhern and Danielle Nicholls becoming the new presentation team. A new logo was introduced (with traces predecessors), and henceforth the service was referred to as CiTV, until the 2006 re-brand, initially being broadcast from Studio B at Central's Gas Street Studios. Central retained the contact to produce CITV for a further two years, after winning against two other ITV companies bidding to win the contact.[2] Shortly afterwards CITV started sharing studio space with the West Midlands edition of Central Tonight in September 1999, allowing room for a large stylised set created by a company called Dorans Propmakers. The main studio for Central News West had previously been used for live music performances during CITV.

Cut Backs

After the turn of the millennium, the overall quality of CITV's output began to drop considerably. During 2001 CITV budget was cut by 17% due to the advertising recession, CITV's controller Janie Grace publicly criticised Carlton and Granada Television, then the main controlling forces in the network, for underinvestment in ITV's children's service.[3] Grace went even further and complained to the regulator ITC. She make it clear CITV was unlikely to fulfil their range of programming commitments next year: she was also seeking ITC support for a radical change away from what she calls a sick, advertising-funded system. Her plan would have see the creation of CITV Ltd pulling in children's TV experts within ITV, and plus a commitment from the likes of Carlton and Granada allowing it to plough revenue from merchandising rights back into programmes. The plan would have seen a reduction in programmes made by independents and far more made by ITV companies, unfortunately the plan require backing from the office of fair trading, and a change in the law.[4] Further cuts took place again during 2002 which brought the total cutback to 25% of the overall budget (£30million less).[5] Despite the cut backs the ITC commented that citv had a "sustained an impressive schedule" were able to give "factual material a fresh look" and "continued to produce good dramas"[6] Just after CITV celebrated its 20th birthday in January 2003 Janie Grace resigned from the post just before Nigel Pickard was named as ITV's new Director of Programmes.[7][8] Nigel Pickard pledged to produce 80 mores hours of children's programming in 2003, against a target of 520 hours in 2002 and extend the range of programmes to include more factual and topical programmes and more mixed entertainment and drama,[9] which include a high profile show Boohbah. Once again Concerns about CITV and its current structure where highlighted by Angus Fletcher, president of Jim Henson Television Europe, and Anne Wood, founder of Ragdoll Productions, as CITV can only earn money from a currently unreliable advertising market. Unlike BBC Worldwide where the likes of Teletubbies, Tweenies and Bob the Builder have become a major money earns for the BBC.[7] Steven Andrew become the new ITV controller of children and youth. He oversaw the merger of Carlton and Granada's children's departments and started looking at benefits for a multichannel kids offering, with a new CITV channel. On-screen, various changes to the presentation team saw no less than eight additions and replacements in the space of four years. By September 2004, ITV plc announced the closure of its presentation and transmission facilities in Birmingham, signalling the end of CITV continuity from Central. Presentation was relocated to Granada in Manchester and all in-vision continuity was replaced by pre-recorded voice overs.

Further cuts back took place in 2005[10] added with the perceived rising costs of original production and the effects on advertising revenues following the ban by OFCOM on 'junk food' advertising within children's schedules from 2007[11][12] and increasing competition from CBBC and countless digital children's channels for new programmes (especially imported cartoons, typically from America). In the summer of 2006, ITV closedown its in-house children's production unit, as part of ITV's then on-going process of restructuring ITV Productions, and blaming the closure because of the competitive production environment, though ITV denied any intention of ditching its children's programming from its ITV1 schedule.[13] At the start of 2007, CITV's long-running weekday afternoon strand on the main ITV network was axed.

CITV Channel

The CITV channel was due to start in 2001 but was axed when Citv lost 25% of its budget. When Steven Andrew become controller of children and youth he stated No kids strategy is complete without us being able to play in the cable and satellite world. In fact, we can't not do this and ultimately survive as a kids player in the future.[14] In early 2004 ITV finally confirmed it was planning to launch a children’s channel, but as a joint venture. Charles Allen, chief executive of ITV, did not believe in ITV creating a new channel as its was already over-populated market, with talk being held with Nickelodeon and Disney.[15] The plans were dropped 12 months later with ITV instead using its own branding, and using spare Daytime capacity on new ITV4, channel being launch in the autumn 2005. Original new channel, with Nickelodeon dubbed "INK" (ITV Nickelodeon Kids) - would have see the two companies share programmes across each other's networks, unfortunately each side failed to agree on the exact structure of the new venture and how it would be branded. ITV said We just got to the point of thinking that it was more sustainable for us to do it ourselves. The deal fizzled out over a period of time with Nickelodeon described the decision to end the talks as a "mutual backing away".[16]

The original launch date of the channel was set for November 2005, to co-side with the launch of ITV4[17] but was healed back till 11 February. As a result of problems "clearing the digital rights to children's programming" and "comprehensive" re-branding, it was again pushed back by another four weeks[18] Promos for the channel began on 20 February, including an online countdown clock, running to the channel's launch date. As has become standard for Freeview channel launches, the channel was allocated an EPG number well before transmission started. Initially, a static 'coming soon' graphic was shown, followed by a preview video loop running from late February 2006 until the launch.[19] The channel launched on 11 March 2006 at 09:25, replacing the ITV News Channel on Freeview, Homechoice (now known as TalkTalk TV) and Telewest.[20] It also launched on Sky on 8 May 2006 and NTL[20] on 6 June. Additionally, the channel simulcasts CITV Breakfast (previously known as GMTV2, which was originally broadcast on ITV2, then ITV4)) on weekdays between 06:00 and 09:25.

The channel broadcasts daily from 06:00 to 18:00 and previously time-shared with ITV4 until 5 February 2008 when ITV4 expanded its broadcast hours to become a full 24 hour channel. As a consequence, it moved to the multiplex space on Freeview originally held by ABC1 from English and Scottish transmitters and S4C from Welsh transmitters, this meant that viewers of the latter were unable to receive the channel on Freeview unless they could receive transmissions from England. On 9 January 2012, a change in the Forward error correction mode on the multiplex allowed CITV to broadcast in Wales on Freeview.On 2 November 2009, the channel was relaunched, with a new logo and new branding to match ITV1 as part of ITV plc's corporate look. The channel's preschool strand was given a dramatic overhaul, and renamed Mini CITV. Mini CITV is hosted by a group of spacemen-like beings called the Minis, who oversee presentation items on the channel. With the exception of weekends and holidays, Mini CITV now takes up the majority of output on the channel.

Programming

Main article: List of programmes broadcast by CITV

Programming between 06:00 and 09:25 is controlled by ITV Breakfast (previously GMTV), who, having rebranded the vast majority of their GMTV children's output as CITV, now use the space to simulcast their programming at weekends on the ITV Network and CITV Breakfast on weekdays.[21] ITV takes over at 09:25, controlling the rest of the day's programming. When it first launched, GMTV used to sell all the airtime for the channel, making it the first ITV plc-owned channel not to be sold by the in-house sales team. Airtime sales have now been taken back in-house by ITV.[22]

ITV's output for the channel includes many well-established programming from the long-running afternoon slot on ITV, such as My Parents Are Aliens, Jungle Run, Art Attack, as well as current programming such as Sooty, Horrid Henry and Bookaboo. On weekdays, the channel broadcasts mainly pre-school programming in the day (except during the school holidays), and programmes for school children in the late afternoon and early evening to cater for the available audience. Some of the programmes that air are sourced from the likes of Disney, Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network.

Mini CITV

File:MiniCITV.png

Mini CITV is the slot that houses CITV's pre-school programming. It airs every weekday from 08:30 to 11:00 and weekends from 06:00 to 06:45. The strand also airs as part of ITV Breakfast every weekend morning from 06:00 to 06:45. It launched on 2 November 2009, as part of a major revamp of CITV. A series of little animated spacemen characters called the Mini's are the mascots of the strand (similar to the yellow bugs of rival CBeebies).

Programmes include

Presenters

Presenters and announcers on CITV over the years have included:

In-vision presenters

Out-of-vision announcers

Guest presenters

Relief presenters

Ratings

The CITV channel launched with a full-day average of 33,000 viewers and a 2.5% share of the child audience. This put it ahead of its major commercial rivals Cartoon Network (20,000, a 1.5% share), Boomerang (28,000 a 2.1% share) and Nickelodeon (26,000 a 2.0% share). The channel peaked at 16:30 with Bratz gaining 51,000 viewers and a 3.6% share.[23] The channel took a 0.2% audience share in its first week compared to: CBBC 0.6, Cartoon Network 0.4, Boomerang 0.4% and CBeebies 1.4%. Its overall ratings share for March 2006 was 0.1%; by April 2006 this had risen to 0.2%, 0.3% followed in May. In August 2006, the channel became the most popular commercial kids channel between 06:00 and 18:00.[24]

References

  1. ^ "ITV Interim Results - 6 months to 2005-06-30" (PDF). Archived from the original (pdf) on 16 October 2006. Retrieved 14 January 2007.
  2. ^ http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/news/multi-platform/news/carlton-regains-citv-job/1215790.article
  3. ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2001/nov/01/broadcasting4
  4. ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2001/nov/12/mondaymediasection
  5. ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2001/nov/20/ITV.bbc
  6. ^ http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/archive/itc/itc_publications/itc_notes/view_note73.html
  7. ^ a b http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/childrens-tv-citv-winning-custody-of-the-children/1109395.article
  8. ^ http://www.c21media.net/archives/12597
  9. ^ http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/itv-puts-colour-back-into-kids/1108923.article
  10. ^ http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/tough-times-for-kids-tv/1020266.article
  11. ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2006/nov/17/health.food
  12. ^ http://www.caterersearch.com/Articles/23/02/2007/311842/Ofcom-to-begin-phasing-out-fast-food-ads-during-kids.htm
  13. ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2006/jun/20/broadcasting.ITV1
  14. ^ http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/autumn-launch-for-citv-channel/1131522.article
  15. ^ http://www.mediaweek.co.uk/news/514495/
  16. ^ http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/itv-kids-channel-set-for-autumn/1027071.article
  17. ^ http://www.toynews-online.biz/news/394/New-kids-plan-for-ITV
  18. ^ Brown, Maggie (13 February 2006). "Kidding Around Gets Serious". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 13 February 2006.
  19. ^ "CITV Channel to Launch". Retrieved 28 February 2006.
  20. ^ a b NTL and Telewest are now both known as Virgin Media.
  21. ^ "GMTV's Overall Strategy and Major Themes of the Year". Retrieved 30 January 2006.
  22. ^ CITV: Where ITV viewers of the future start their journey
  23. ^ Timms, Dominic (13 March 2006). "ITV Ratings at Six-Month Low". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 13 March 2006.
  24. ^ "CITV Channel Celebrates First Birthday". Retrieved 13 March 2007.
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