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Pickard unveils BBC's kids plans

In the UK, controller of Children's BBC Nigel Pickard has outlined his long-awaited and recently approved plans for the corporation's two upcoming children's services.

Pickard confirmed that the pre-school channel will be called Cbeebies, while the CBBC brand will be retained for the older kids' offering, the CBBC Channel, aimed at 6-13 year-olds. Both channels are due to launch in Q1 2002.

{When the secretary of state approved the two new channels, she recognised that public service broadcasting for children was a fundamental necessity in the digital age,{ Pickard told Bafta members, as he unveiled his plans. {She looked to CBBC to create services that would be a legacy from us to future generations of children.{

The pre-school offering will revolve around a four-hour block of programming, with each block repeated in a cycle.

With a budget of over £40m ($60m), some 700 hours of new programming has been greenlit for the two services:

CBBC Digital commissions

For the older children's channel, Pickard has greenlit a huge series – 1,040 episodes in total – called Xchange. The daily live show will run over two years and is the biggest CBBC commission ever. The interactive show will bookend the channel each weekday, and will be directed by the audience.

Other in-house commissions for the CBBC channel include the candid camera show Stitch Up and the showbiz show Call the Shots, plus CBBC Scotland's Rule the School and 20-part reality gameshow The Raven. A 52-part live Sunday morning show is also in the pipeline.

Two Hats Productions has been ordered to make a 26-part weekly drama hour Cave Girl, the first series in CBBC's requirement of 50 drama hours. Pickard described the show as 'Clueless meets the Stone Age.{

Imported from the BBC's terrestrial services, Blue Peter and Newsround will also feature on the CBBC channel. Both will get a revamp for the digital service, with the former mutating into Blue Peter Flies the World and Blue Peter Unleashed, while Newsround goes thrice daily to keep kids informed about current affairs.

On the factual front, Pickard has lined up Extreme Challenge, in which eight kids travel to Borneo to help release orangutans into the wild, plus Making It, a talent quest to discover the next CBBC presenter. Both are in-house commissions. There is also The Commonwealth Project on the slate, which celebrates cultural diversity between kids from all the Commonwealth nations.

Cbeebies commissions

Top of the Cbeebies slate is the 126-episode series Applecross from CBBC Scotland. The pre-school drama is set in a fictional Scottish village.

Other commissions for the pre-school channel include The Storymakers and Smarteenies from CBBC; Bits & Bobs and Zingalong from CBBC Scotland; The Fab Lab from Initial Kids; The Shiny Show from Open Mind Productions; and Step Inside from Tricorn Associates.

In related news, the BBC Animation Unit has been incorporated into the CBBC division. Pickard said the move would {extend the Unit's remit, working with the team not only to develop new ideas but also to manage all animation across the BBC.{

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