DFGW wins launch of two BBC children’s channels
DFGW, formerly Duckworth Finn Grubb Waters, is to handle the launch of two digital BBC channels: Cbeebies and The CBBC Channel.
DFGW will work with the BBC’s internal advertising specialists.
Cbeebies, aimed at pre-school children, will be built around a four-hour block of programming, with landmark titles such as the Teletubbies being shown every hour on the hour.
The blocks will be repeated, but the presentation work around the shows will not. Instead, it will reflect the time of day – morning, lunchtime and afternoon – when the programming airs. Each day will end with a special ‘bed-time’ story hour.
The CBBC Channel, aimed at sixto 13-year-olds, will offer a school schedule during term time – 32 weeks of the year.
The two channels, which were this year given clearance by the Department of Culture Media & Sport, will have a combined budget of more than &£40m. They will be launched together in the first quarter of next year.
The BBC’s plans have met with opposition from commercial children’s channels, some of which claim they could lose revenue. But in a speech to Bafta members on Monday (November 19) CBBC controller Nigel Pickard said: “As television remains one of the most efficient and cost-effective ways to reach children, I cannot see advertisers pulling significant levels of advertising from these channels.”
