Narrative Entertainment to shutter Pop linear channels and app next month
Pop carries shows including Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir
Narrative Entertainment in the UK will close its Pop and Tiny Pop kids’ linear channels, as well as the Pop Player app, in December, C21 has learned.
Free-to-air preschool channel Tiny Pop and older-skewing Pop were launched in the UK by CSC Media Group in 2003 before being acquired by Sony Pictures Television in 2014 and then by Narrative Entertainment in 2021. They are currently available on Freeview, Sky and Virgin Media.
Pop is the only dedicated free-to-air (FTA) commercial kids’ broadcaster in the UK, since the closure of ITV’s linear children’s channel CITV in 2023. Pop and Tiny Pop’s closure leaves public broadcaster the BBC’s CBBC and CBeebies brands and Paramount-owned 5’s Milkshake! preschool strand as the only remaining FTA linear channels for kids in the UK.
Tiny Pop was initially removed from linear TV in March 2024 but was reinstated five months later – a decision that Narrative MD Paul Dunthorne said at the time would allow it to better serve its audience.
The latest move comes after the closure of sister linear channel Pop Max, which left Freeview in December last year and Sky in January this year, with its content moving to Pop and Pop Player.
The Pop and Tiny Pop FAST channels will continue, however, as will sister FAST channel Pop Up. Francesca Newington, director of the Pop channels, will continue to oversee the FAST channel portfolio.
Pop airs series including Pokemon, Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir and Alvin & the Chipmunks. Tiny Pop’s offering includes Masha & the Bear, Gabby’s Dollhouse, PJ Masks and Elmo’s World.
The channel closures come during a crisis in the kids’ TV industry, with children rapidly defecting from linear viewing to streaming and social video platforms like YouTube.
Four months ago, pay TV channel Sky Kids announced it will cease commissioning children’s programmes in favour of third-party acquisitions. The BBC, meanwhile, revealed plans in 2022 to close the CBBC linear channel and convert it to a digital-only brand. Those plans have been put on hold, however, so as not to disadvantage children who don’t have internet access at home.
Narrative said its decision to close the Pop and Tiny Pop linear channels, which only offer acquisitions, comes as a result of the drop in linear consumption among young viewers.
Dunthorne told C21: “With commercial value across the UK kids’ TV market now just 4% of what it was 10 years ago, we’ve taken the decision to close our linear Pop channel at the end of the year. We understand the importance of offering high-quality kids’ TV, and we’ve done everything that we can to maintain Pop. But free-to-air channels for this audience are simply not commercially viable without public service broadcaster-style funding.
“We will retain our Pop presence on FAST channels in the UK on Freeview, Samsung, LG and other platforms, and internationally, as these continue to offer commercial opportunities.”
As well as the Pop channels, Narrative operates the Great! portfolio of linear networks, including Great! TV, Great! Romance, Great! Christmas, Great! Mystery and Great! Action, which will be its focus going forward.
