Two years on from the closure of its children’s channel, commercial broadcaster ITV is cutting the last remaining kids TV slot by over a third.
- New schedule on revamped, reality-focused ITV2 channel
- Broadcaster already abandoned dedicated slot for pre-school children.
ITV2’s impending revamp will see the broadcaster cutting back further on children’s programmes each morning.
ITV’s remaining children’s output was banished to ITV2’s breakfast schedule following the closure of the CITV Channel in 2023. At the time, ITV announced it was boosting its library of children’s shows on ITVX, but keeping two dedicate strands of traditional children’s TV on its live TV channels.
Since then ITV2 has screened 21 hours of children’s programmes each week, or 3 hours a day. From 9 June, ITV2 will cut children’s programmes to 1.75 hours a day. The cutbacks come just over a year after ITV quietly axed the other of its remaining children’s TV strands. On 31 May 2024, ITV quietly dropped LittleBe, a strand of programmes for younger children.
ITV2 will air shows including Dinner Date in the vacated breakfast slot. Shows including Scooby Doo will continue from 6am.
Revamped ITV2
ITV2 is being revamped following the closure of ITVBe on Sunday 8 June.
The new reality heavy ITV2 schedule from Monday 9 June coincides with the launch of this summer’s Love Island, which will air every night at 9pm.
The rest of the schedule sees various reality shows previously shown on ITVBe fill the schedules, including new series of The Real Housewives Of… franchise and Million Dollar Listing. Quiz shows, mostly moving to the new ITV Quiz channel, also launching the same day, will continue to have some slots on the ITV2 schedule for the time being.
ITV2’s comedy output follows after 10:00pm. Highlights include G’wed and Family Guy.
Throughout ITV2’s output, the broadcaster will continue to heavily cross-promote streaming service ITVX.
By: Marc Thornham | Image: ITV