The BBC faces a fresh licence fee row with ministers alarmed by plans to end television broadcasts of children’s shows including Blue Peter and Newsround.Tim Davie, BBC Director-General, said CBBC, which makes shows for children aged six to 17, would stop broadcasting as a traditional channel by 2025.Its programmes, which include the award-winning Horrible Histories and drama Tracy Beaker Returns, would move online to the BBC iPlayer.Viewers’ groups said the announcement was premature since homes without high-speed internet connections rely on the BBC’s traditional channels.The free-to-air CBBC channel also reaches households who cannot afford to subscribe to Disney + and Netflix.Ministers are concerned at the proposal, which the BBC announced as part of a “digital-first” strategy required to close a £285m funding gap created by the two-year licence fee freeze imposed by Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries.While they accept it is the BBC’s decision to make, there are concerns at the effect on households without good access to the internet or streaming channels and a suggestion that the broadcaster needs to justify its decision to viewers.Talks between Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries and the BBC have yet to take place over the decision but a Whitehall source said “eyebrows were raised” when the move was announced. 9-The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said the BBC should preserve its offer to children and find the savings elsewhere.A spokesperson said: “We recognise the BBC, just like individual households, businesses and other organisations across the UK, is having to make difficult financial decisions.“We agree with the Director-General that the BBC should be leaner but it is required to provide television content for children under its operating licence.“It should prioritise using its £3.7bn annual licence fee income as necessary to deliver that remit.”Ministers could require the BBC to retain CBBC as a broadcast channel as part of the Framework Agreement which sets out the broadcaster’s obligations and commitments under its current Royal Charter.The BBC could be told to ensure TV broadcasts of key shows such as Blue Peter and Newsround, which celebrated its 50th anniversary last month and is used in classrooms as an educational resource by thousands of schools.Newsround won praise for informing children about the pandemic during lockdown in special editions which addressed young people’s anxieties.The BBC believes CBBC faces irreversible decline as a broadcast channel with younger viewers “snacking” on short-form clips on YouTube or tuning in to streaming rivals.CBBC now reaches just 14 per cent of children aged 6-12 on TV each week, a steep decline from 27 per cent in 2015.Media watchdog Ofcom has agreed a BBC request to reduce the hours of original CBBC productions it makes by 4 per cent and show more cartoons.The BBC said new animation series, “rooted in British culture”, would help attract more children from “working class” backgrounds to the channel.Anna Home, chair of the Children’s Media Foundation, said she would be seeking a meeting with the BBC to discuss the closure plan.Ms Home, a former head of BBC children’s programmes, who commissioned Grange Hill, told i: “There is a lot of concernt about this in the industry. It is households in lower economic groups who often can only watch on TVs.”She added: “Kids programming has been at the heart of the BBC for many years and we’re already seeing a reduction in drama. This is symbolic about the way childrens’ programming is perceived.”BBC insiders speculated that floating closing CBBC as a channel could be designed to demonstrate the depth of cuts the BBC is being forced to make.Viewers launched a “Save CBBC” Change.org petition immediately after Thursday’s announcement.The petition said: “Axing CBBC is a major let-down to both parents and the organisation’s younger viewers and we urge the BBC to re-evaluate their plans.”It noted that “alongside entertainment shows for younger viewers, the channel broadcast 1,000 hours a year of factual and schools programmes.”“During the unprecedented Covid-19 pandemic and UK lockdowns when schools were closed, CBBC offered a lifeline to parents and students by extending their educational programming block.”Announcing the closure, Mr Davie said: “Over time we expect to consolidate and share more content between services, and expect to stop broadcasting some of our smaller channels on linear. This will include services like BBC Four, CBBC and Radio 4 Extra.”“But we won’t do this for at least the next three years because for the moment they are still delivering value to millions of viewers and listeners, at low extra cost.”The BBC’s case for closing CBBC could be undercut by its decision to reinstate youth channel BBC Three as a TV station.The BBC accepted that BBC Three programmes were seen by fewer people after its move online. Its return as a traditional, scheduled channel was designed to give more prominence to dramas such as its new Sally Rooney adaptation, Conversations With Friends.Ofcom said the BBC had to innovate to retain viewers under 16. “Programme output cannot stay the same while audience habits change,” the watchdog said.“The BBC has struggled to attract and retain younger audiences, and this risks its ability to deliver on its Mission and Public Purposes. These risks are compounded by funding pressures and rising production costs affecting all UK public service broadcasters.”YouTube is already poised to eclipse the BBC as the most used news source for 12 to 15-year-olds, an Ofcom report suggested.The danger for the BBC is that younger viewers who do not grow up watching its programmes and are surfing YouTube instead, will question why they are being asked to pay the licence fee when they get older.There are no plans to shut down the CBeebies TV channel, aimed at pre-school children.It is believed that the number of Britons who do not have access to the internet runs to several millions. The elderly and poorer households make up the majority.
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