BBC Trust

The response of students to CBEEBIES was generally positive with many saying that it was considered a ‘safe’ place for their children or children under their care to be educated, entertained and informed – “I can put CBEEBIES on and know it’s fine for them to watch”. Others considered the target age range of CBEEBIES to be too wide and that it was difficult if not impossible for the channel to appeal to the whole age range it was aimed at.

Many participants considered CBEEBIES’ educational output to be significant and very worthwhile. Several considered the channel’s ability to combine education and entertainment one of its greatest strengths, though other participants thought this was not as strong as it had once been, with programmes now more obviously entertaining or educational. Programmes such as Mr Tumble, Alphablocks, Mr Blue’s Nursery, The Lingo Show (with the inclusion of Welsh being hugely appreciated) and Mr Maker were mentioned as opportunities to learn while being entertained and were strongly welcomed by many participants. Some participants felt that Mister Maker’s art projects were rather ambitious for a CBEEBIES audience, but was useful in suggesting things children and adults could undertake together. Several example were given of young people who suffered from mutism or other speech impediments being helped through ‘interacting’ with on-screen CBEEBIES presenters.

Participants felt that there was a good link between the educational provision of CBEEBIES and what children learnt at school – and this was commended.

The channel was praised for its positive and relaxed portrayal of diversity and it was considered that religion, race, disability and inequality were well integrated into programmes while ethnic minorities were also well portrayed in a positive way.

A key element of CBEEBIES content which aimed to inform was that it engaged children and became a catalyst for further conversations with parents or carers, which was considered hugely beneficial.

Life skills programmes, such as Lazy Town were also welcomed in that they encouraged young viewers to establish good habits for life in terms of activity levels and healthy eating.

The CBEEBIES website was considered to be accessible, and strongly supported the broadcast content. It was also popular with participants making reference to children under their care have the site as their first choice on the internet.

CBEEBIES was considered by some contributors to be trumped by other channels in the entertainment stakes, with several references to the Disney Channel and Nickelodeon. It was felt that both were more attractive to children because of the lighter tone of the output.  Other participants considered that the popularity of those channels and perceptions of their quality was based on their omnipresence rather than on the actual quality of their broadcast offering. Participants also said that the strength of the Disney brand and the ability to purchase merchandise reinforced the attractiveness of the channel to children. Several participants praised the channel’s cookery programmes. Another said “Bedtime hour is fab!”

Educate

Horrible Histories and Gory Games were mentioned by a high number of participants as being highly educational as well as entertaining. One typical contribution from a participant was “My 11 year old brother loves Horrible History and Gory Games. He didn’t like history before, but now knows all about it.” Another participant said “Horrible History is awesome – we need more!”

Some participants said that schools tended not to use TV for teaching purposes but that the BBC’s websites and learning games were hugely appreciated. One matter was raised on several occasions in this context was the disappointment felt by many that programmes only remained on the BBC iPlayer for 7 days.

In this context programmes like Newsround and Blue Peter were cited as excellent exemplars, with the coverage during summer 2012 of the London 2012 Olympic Games on Newsround having been particularly appreciated. Some participants regretted the recent changes to Blue Peter and felt that the programme no longer reached children in the way it had in the past, especially after the move from BBC ONE.

Informative programmes such as Deadly 60 were also appreciated by participants.

A number of participants felt that there was a lack of portrayal of Wales on children’s programmes and that there was an overall perception of lack of place (and a consequentially anodyne feel) to many children’s programmes. One participant expressed the views of a number in saying “We need people who live here to talk about what happens here, not people from outside Wales to tell us about Wales. If you live in Wales you need to know what is happening in Wales before you know what’s happening elsewhere. If you don’t know what’s happening in Wales you don’t appreciate what’s happening anywhere else either.” Another participant said “the channel doesn’t reflect the UK’s different nations – it seems to be trying to present everywhere as ‘one’.”

There was a feeling also that there was not enough original Welsh content with even the programmes on Cyw on S4C being the same only that they had been voiced over in Welsh rather than  English.

Many participants considered that CBBC provided valuable entertainment to their children. In relation to older children, many made reference to the Tracey Beaker strand as popular and entertaining, though some others felt it had now become “stale and out of date”. Participants said that older children often turned to other channels for their entertainment, with Doctor Who given as an example that was hugely popular.

Some participants felt that both children’s channels tried to encompass too wide an age range and there to be no obvious ‘transfer’ of viewers from CBEEBIES to CBBC, or onwards from CBBC to the BBC’s other TV channels.

Other participants said they felt that some output “contains too much violence – my children copy it and misbehave”.

News was widely considered to provide a good service which was considered “informative, non-political and brilliant”, though some participants considered some presenters unprofessional on occasions with several references to a BBC Breakfast presenter who had been “rude to an interviewee with disabilities”.

Sport, as ever, elicited widely polarised opinions with some participants considering the sports output “not diverse enough”, and being largely limited to soccer and rugby. Others criticised the sharing of Formula 1 broadcasting rights with Sky which they felt had led to a deterioration in the BBC’s coverage. There was a consensus however that the BBC’s coverage of the London 2012 Olympic games had been “outstanding”.

The default, and widely appreciated, TV channel of many present was BBC Three. Participants welcomed ‘special’ weeks such as the ‘Body issues week’ which the BBC had held recently. With most participants being young women, many felt that Swedish dramas – such as those broadcast on BBC Four - presented a more positive image of women than UK drama and that the positives of being a young woman  - or indeed a young person of either sex - was rarely portrayed.