ITV to launch fta kids channel

Following the collapse of joint-venture talks with Nickelodeon, ITV is to launch its own free-to-air kids channel within the next six months, the UK commercial network confirmed this afternoon.

The name of the channel has yet to be confirmed, but ITV brass today said that it’ll appear on all digital platforms including Freeview, airing a selection of ITV’s existing slate of children’s programming: original drama, entertainment, animation, factual and preschool programming.

While there has been much speculation about ITV’s plans for expanding into dedicated kids channels post-Nickelodeon, this is the first confirmation of a fta ITV kids channel, which is expected to share airtime with the planned free-to-air offering ITV4.

Launching the channel is something of a high-risk move for ITV, given the market’s near saturation with major brands like CBBC, CBeebies and the channel families of Disney, Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network. The commercial players – excluded from Freeview – are already feeling the pinch from the BBC’s two publicly-funded services.

Estelle Hughes, editor of CiTV, will expand her existing role to run the new channel. Though the launch slate will mostly comprise reruns of the CiTV library, Hughes will be looking to commission and acquire other product in the coming months, the channel said.

Jonathan Lewis, ITV’s director of digital channels, said the move “will enable us to fully exploit our existing library of quality children’s programming and build valuable brands around new properties, such as Granada’s Pocoyo (pictured). We will also reap the benefits of being the only commercial children’s channel on Freeview.”

The launch will mark the return to dedicated kids TV for ITV’s director of programming, Nigel Pickard, formerly head of CBBC at the public network, where he launched the CBBC channel and CBeebies. “This is a great opportunity for ITV to reinforce its position as a valued and trusted provider of children’s programming in an increasingly competitive market and to bring ITV to a new generation of viewers,” he said.

Sales for the new channel will be handled by GMTV (jointly owned by ITV and Disney), and Lewis added: “This is a very competitive and specialised market, in which GMTV’s sales team have real expertise and experience. It makes absolute commercial sense for us to exploit that expertise and work with the team that is closest to that market.”

Only last month, ITV confirmed that the year-long talks with Nickelodeon over launching a joint-venture channel called INK (ITV Nickelodeon Kids) had closed with no deal. ITV4 will launch on November 1, likely occupying the new slot on Freeview that ITV won in April.