Ahead of the closure of the CITV children’s channel this autumn, ITV has confirmed details of how it will grow its children’s streaming service over the school summer holidays.
ITV is planning to use the coming months to grow its children’s streaming service within ITVX. In the autumn the existing CITV channel on Freeview, Freesat, Sky, Virgin Media and YouView will be closed down.
ITVX Kids is a free-to-stream service. But parents wanting an ad-free experience for their children will need to subscribe to ITVX Premium.
▶ New programmes coming to ITVX Kids during the summer holidays
Shows that will appear on ITVX between July and September
- All Round Champions, which features ten of the best teen athletes at the top of their game as they step outside their comfort zones to compete against each other.
- The very first series of American Ninja Warrior Junior will also stream, featuring real kids taking on the iconic obstacle course.
- The Gamers 2037 features three former friends, who must overcome their differences and beat an unbeatable virtual reality game… or risk being trapped inside it forever.
- Friendzspace: an animated comedy about a trio of human kids committed to making friends with alien kids across the universe… and posting cool selfies.
- Tara Duncan: an animated series featuring Tara, an ordinary girl from earth, who discovers that she’s the heir to a magical empire and must travel to a distant world to awaken her superpowers.
- Additional episodes of Lego Dreamzzz, building on from the first series launch coming to ITVX this month.
This is in addition to already-announced content including six brand new episodes of The Rubbish World of Dave Spud and new episodes of The Sound Collector narrated by Keira Knightley. Moreover, ITVX is also growing the number of shows for pre-school children this year. These include Teletubbies, Let’s Go, Sooty and Bob the Builder.
Once the CITV channel is closed, ITV will continue to showcase a limited range of children’s programmes on ITV2 in the mornings. This will feature heavy cross-promotion to ITVX, where all programmes can be seen first. However, pre-school programmes will continue to be shown on ITVBe each morning.
Marc Thornham