Mums and dads stand easy: it appears that CBeebies and CBBC are not destined for the online scrapheap just yet.
We reported last week how fears over the channels’ future had been exacerbated by the BBC’s recent future strategy report, which talked of “keeping up” with children who were consuming content online and proposed a new online children’s service.
Petition sharers went into overdrive on social networks at the suggestion, with one calling for CBeebies to be saved “from the axe” now signed by over 130,000 people.
But speaking to MPs today, the idea of turning CBeebies and CBBC into online-only channels appeared to be scotched by director general Tony Hall.
He said: “We don’t have proposals to take CBeebies and CBBC, as channels, out of the environment.”
He went on: “We’re talking about how we can make sure that the 20%, and growing, number of young people can use the good things the BBC can offer.”
