BBC urged to do more for young people

Corporation told to do more for 2.1 million children aged four to 12 who watch BBC1 and BBC2 but not CBeebies or CBBC

Read the full BBC Trust report on children's services

The BBC has been urged to do more to appeal to more than 2 million young people who watch BBC1 and BBC2 but neither of its dedicated children's channels, CBBC and CBeebies.

In a review of the corporation's output in the genre published on Tuesday, the BBC Trust had no shortage of praise for the Salford-based children's department but said action was needed on a number of fronts if the corporation was to stay relevant to younger viewers, including warning that it risks being left behind by new technology.

A year after nearly all of the BBC's children's programmes, including Blue Peter, were removed from BBC1 and BBC2, confined exclusively to its dedicated channels, CBBC and CBeebies, the trust said the corporation had to take "concerted action" to appeal to children in its mainstream output, across TV, radio and online.

The report said there are 2.1 million children aged four to 12 who watch BBC1 and BBC2 every week but do not watch either CBeebies or CBBC.

The trust said it backed management's controversial decision to remove dedicated children's content from BBC1 and BBC2 and put it exclusively on CBBC and CBeebies.

But it said the BBC should do more to raise awareness of its children's content, including putting more CBBC programmes onto BBC1 and BBC2 after 7pm, when CBBC has stopped broadcasting.

With 4.5 million four to 12 year olds watching TV after 7pm, it said there was a big potential audience for such shows and said some younger viewers were more likely to watch programmes aimed at them if they were on a mainstream channel. This point is likely to be seized on critics of the BBC's decision to ditch children's programmes from BBC1 and BBC2.

"The BBC's own research suggests that older children might be more attracted to watching CBBC's older skewing content if it were shown on other BBC channels," said the trust.

CBBC programmes to make the switch to "family viewing" slots on BBC1 include Horrible Histories and Deadly 60, while another show, Wolfblood, recently aired on BBC3.

"Currently these scheduling conversations take place on [a] fairly informal basis and we feel there is scope to give fuller consideration as to how such decisions can best meet the needs of the audiences for the respective channels," said the trust.

Both children's channels face problems holding onto their audience as they get older, with children aged four to six beginning to think that CBeebies is "too babyish" and children aged nine and over looking to teenage-friendly soaps and drama on more mainstream services rather than CBBC.

The BBC, like other broadcasters, faces a challenge holding the attention of young people, with reach for BBC TV lowest among 16- to 24-year-olds, said the report.

The trust added that BBC Children's was "at risk of falling behind children's media consumption habits", with the interactive and mobile offer for both CBBC and CBeebies "relatively basic" compared with some of its commercial rivals.

It said children wanted content on demand, on tablets and on other mobile devices, and welcomed the BBC's new CBeebies Playtime app and plans for an app for CBBC.

CBBC had a weekly reach of 48% of its target audience of under sixes in 2012/13, and CBBC reached 36% of children between six and 12 (against 66% of that age group who watched BBC1 every week, with programmes such as Doctor Who and The Voice particularly popular).

CBBC, which has already broadcast spin-off shows such as Junior Masterchef and Junior Bake Off, is now considering showing reworked dramas of age appropriate BBC1 dramas "that perform well with teenagers".

However, the trust also registered concern that over-reliance on such a policy "could compromise innovation".

Viewing figures for both CBBC and CBeebies are down on the previous year (which marked a five year high for both) with CBBC overtaken in satellite and cable homes by the Disney channel.

The trust said CBBC "struggled to inherit" viewers from its younger-orientated sibling, CBeebies, with the BBC working on a more "joined up" offering between the two channels.

BBC radio listening among young people is also declining, according to the trust, with children most likely to listen to Nick Grimshaw's breakfast show on Radio 1 or Radio 2's Chris Evans.

Digital station Radio 4 Extra has a daily children's programme at 4pm every day (along with an extensive online "CBeebies Radio" service) but the station was not mentioned by any of the 8,000 children who took part in the trust's consultation. The trust called on the BBC to find more ways of promoting its audio services.

BBC trustee Alison Hastings said: "We heard an overwhelming amount of praise for the BBC's children's services, both from their young audiences and from adults, and it's clear that CBeebies and CBBC have earned their place at the heart of many families' viewing habits.

"The challenge for the BBC is to keep pace with change and make sure it's providing programmes, information, apps and other content when and where children want and expect it – we're encouraged by the BBC's ongoing work to tackle these challenges and we'll expect to see progress being made in the coming months."

Following 10.5% cuts to its budget – proportionately less than the cost savings imposed elsewhere on the BBC – the children's department will have £91m to spend in 2016/17 compared with £101.7m in 2011/12.

A consequent focus on "fewer, bigger, better" has seen total originated hours across BBC Children's fall from 747 hours in 2008/09 to 600 hours in 2012/13.

Children and parents complained about the level of repeats on both channels, with 83% of total broadcast hours on CBBC repeats, and 88% on CBeebies (the trust said the level was even higher on commercial children's channels).

The report, which also had input from 2,700 parents and carers, was part of the BBC Trust's remit to carry out a review of BBC services at least once every five years.

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