CITV
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CITV (short for Children's ITV or Children's Independent Television) is the brand name used for the majority of children's television output on ITV's television stations, including the ITV Network, breakfast broadcaster GMTV and the ITV plc-owned CITV Channel as well as non ITV plc owned regions. The flagship CITV strand was previously broadcast on weekday on ITV (normally referred to as ITV1 in England and Wales, STV in central and northern Scotland, and UTV in Northern Ireland) between 15:30 and 17:00, Saturday mornings between 06:00 and 11:30, and Sunday mornings between 07:25 and 10.00. The afternoon weekday slot was recently stopped altogether, and therefore CITV only runs on weekend mornings on ITV (see below). CITV also has its own channel, which was launched by ITV plc on 11 March 2006.
Children's ITV was already recorded from 1983 - 1987. From 1987 Children's ITV was broadcast live for the very first time. From February 1993 CITV went out of vision and had Steven Ryde doing most of the voice overs and links. 1998 brought back a studio and presenters but with Steven Ryde still producing CITV. From September 2004 to today CITV is yet again out of vision with no links from presenters in a studio with CITV moving to Granada Television's studios in Manchester from late 2005 onwards. Tim Dann (the current voice over for CITV) records links for the weekly schedule.
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[edit] History
[edit] The Past
Produced by Central Independent Television, Children's ITV first went on air in January 1983, and consisted of programmes with recorded links in between, initially featuring a different presenter each month. Recorded links continued until 1987, when it started to be broadcast live, echoing Children's BBC which had started two years earlier. Before being known as Children's ITV the timeslot was briefly branded as "Watch IT!", which was presented locally rather than having national continuity.
In 1989, a company called Stonewall Productions won the contract to produce Children's ITV, and it did so until April 1991, when Central won it back.
In February 1993, in-vision presentation was dropped by the new CITV controller, Dawn Airey, with Steven Ryde providing the voice-overs for out-of-vision links featuring a wide variety of animated characters. A few months later the Children's ITV name was changed to the more youth-friendly CITV, having been used in some form or another since the previous year. However, the "Children's" wasn't removed from the logo until September 1996, the same month a Digital On-screen Graphic (DOG) was introduced.
This continued until May 1998, when a new in-vision service was introduced by the new CITV controller, Nigel Pickard. It was produced by Steven Ryde and fronted by presenters Stephen Mulhern and Danielle Nicholls. A new logo was introduced, and henceforth the service had been referred to as CiTV (until another new logo was introduced in March 2006 and the service became simply known as CITV). The studio space available was initially very small, but in September 1999, CITV started sharing studio space with Central News, allowing room for a large stylised set created by a company called Dorans Propmakers.
Post 2000 however, the overall quality of CITV's output began to drop considerably after peaking in the early 1990s, apparent budget cuts meant fewer shows were made, repeats were much more frequent, and many flagship shows were axed. It did not help that in 2001 CITV's controller Janie Grace publicly criticised Carlton and Granada, then ITV's controlling forces, for underinvestment in ITV's children's service. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Grace was removed from her post just as Nigel Pickard was named as ITV's new Director of Programmes. This decline has seemingly continued, thanks to perceived rising costs of original production (and the effects on advertising revenues following the ban by OFCOM on junk food advertising within children's schedules), and increasing competition from CBBC and countless digital children's channels for new programmes (especially imported cartoons, typically from America).
CITV has courted controversy at times with decisions that upset its fan base. The axing of the popular animated show ReBoot after Series 3 :Episode 9: The Return of the Crimson Binome, in 1998 provoked a large number of complaints. Similar axings took place of shows such as Cardcaptors and Digimon years later. Digimon was axed near the end of season 2, and again after four episodes into Digimon Tamers (Season 3). Cardcaptors, meanwhile, was shelved half way into its second season. In the case of Digimon and ReBoot, the remaining episodes were never broadcast on terrestrial TV (Nether have finished any run of their series in the UK, Digimon got as far as the end of Season 3 on Jetix). Cardcaptors aired its remaining episodes on the GMTV2 weekday morning strand and as "filler" programming after F1 Grand Prix races.
All three shows were action based, and after Digimon there has been a marked downturn in action cartoons on CITV. The 2003 version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is the only action show to have aired on CITV in recent times, though the new version of Captain Scarlet was completed, despite its being much darker then ReBoot. ReBoot was deemed unsuitable for younger target audiences by the network centre that funded the show for CITV, who only bought 10 episodes out of the 16.
[edit] The Present
CITV on the ITV Network now usually broadcasts Saturdays 06:00 to 10:30 and Sundays 07:00 to 10:00. However, sometimes these times are altered.
CITV recently won children's BAFTAs for pre-school animation for Pocoyo, in animation for The Amazing Adrenalini Brothers, drama The Giblet Boys and the multi-award winning My Life as a Popat. The presenter award was won by Holly Willoughby for Saturday Showdown.
The CITV Channel runs every day from 6am to 6pm. It has a mixed genre and age range of programming for both pre-school age and older children. The channel was unique in that, while wholly owned by ITV plc, up until October 2007, its airtime was sold by GMTV, a company partly owned by ITV plc.
[edit] The Future
Recent reports have suggested that the future of CITV on the ITV Network is in severe doubt. Three of the network's four companies no longer make their own children's programming with SMG Productions, who have a thriving children's department, selling most of its programmes to rivals such as Discovery Kids[1], and ITV recently discussed with Ofcom the possibility of massively reducing its children's programming on the ITV Network, with one of the options being to cut kids output from eight hours a week to just two. A formal request was made to the watchdog but was rejected, Ofcom stating that ITV had an obligation to continue to broadcast children's TV on their main, terrestrial channel.[2]
It has been noted that since the start of 2007, the amount of CITV programming on ITV has diminished greatly with the weekday 3pm-5pm slot being replaced with repeats of ITV dramas, features and new quiz shows.
It has yet to be noted if Ofcom will follow up on its previous rejection and object to this course of action as ITV now uses CITV Channel's 3pm-6pm airtime as a de facto replacement for the ITV block. In March 2007, ITV's executive chairman, Michael Grade, conceded that there would be no more children's programming on ITV in the 'medium to long term', and that there was likely to be no future for CITV output on the main network.[3]
In addition to all this, the role of the CITV Channel has been greatly downplayed, often ending transmission after its pre-school programing. This practice began with the channel being closed early in favour of Tour de France 2007 coverage and after that event, the channel has often gone off-air early on weekends to allow a 12:30pm start for ITV4. This has since been stopped, with the CITV Channel broadcasting its usual hours, 6am to 6pm every day, as it has moved to a new slot on Freeview, allowing ITV4 to broadcast 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. However, the new slot means the CITV channel is no longer available from transmitters in Wales.
[edit] Saturday Morning
Over the years CITV's flagship show has aired on Saturday mornings. The last show to do this was Holly & Stephen's Saturday Showdown which was an updated version of Ministry of Mayhem. As of Saturday 10 June 2006 the show was exclusive to the CITV Channel before ending on Saturday 1 July 2006. This continued the recession of Children's output on the ITV terrestrial service. During the 2006 FIFA World Cup, practically no children's programming aired on ITV (except GMTV strands on Saturday and Sunday morning) and all other children's programming aired on the CITV Channel.
In addition to this, the last of the Saturday Morning "Magazine" shows, Holly & Stephen's Saturday Showdown, was replaced by Saturday Cooks in an attempt to compete with the BBC's own Saturday Kitchen (However, in the case of BBC, its own Saturday morning programmes now run on BBC Two). The CITV Channel at the moment has a cartoon slot from 9.25am to 11.30am every Saturday morning called Toonbase which heavily uses its airing of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as the base of its promotion (despite the airing of action cartoons being decreased in recent years by both CITV and CBBC).
The most popular show of recent times was SMTV Live, which launched the presenting careers of Ant & Dec and Cat Deeley.
For the full list see: List of programmes broadcast by CITV.
[edit] GMTV
Since 12 March 2006, the breakfast-time broadcasting company GMTV, which is partially owned by ITV plc and shares its frequencies, has also adopted CITV branding, although its children's programming remains technically distinct from that produced by ITV plc in that it is bought and controlled separately by the breakfast station, so is not operated by ITV plc. The use of the CITV logo and graphics (a move previously avoided by GMTV) was adopted in order to simplify the simulcast of GMTV's programmes on the CITV Channel, which is a joint timeshare venture between the two broadcasters. Where kids' output is not simulcast, GMTV tends to retain its own GMTV Kids branding, especially in the case of its preschool programming. As with all GMTV output, any children's programmes shown before 9.25am do not count towards the ITV Network's public service quota set out by Ofcom since the breakfast broadcaster is technically a separate entity, with its own children's quota to fulfil.
GMTV's airtime sales team sold the advertising for the CITV Channel until 2008, making it the only ITV plc owned channel not to been sold through the company's own in-house sales division. In October 2007, however, the decision was taken by ITV plc to take the sales operation for the CITV Channel in-house.
[edit] Presenters
Presenters on CITV over the years have included:
- Matthew Kelly (January 1983, November 1985)
- Isla St Clair (February 1983)
- Derek Griffiths (March 1983)
- David Rappaport (October 1983)
- Charlotte Coleman (as Marmalade Atkins) (April 1983)
- Tommy Boyd (July 1983)
- Roland Rat (May 1983, March 1984, June 1985)
- Bonnie Langford (November 1984)
- Tommy Boyd (second time; December 1984)
- Rod Hull & Emu (December 1985)
- Stu Francis (April-May 1984)
- James Baker (June 1986, March 1987)
- Gary Terzza (1987 - 1988)
- Debbie Shore (1987 - 1988)
- Mark Granger (1988 - 1989)
- Andi Peters (Summer 1988)
- Jerry Foulkes (April - December 1989)
- Clive Warren (Mornings & Afternoons; Summer 1989/1990)
- Jeanne Downs (Mornings; Summer 1989/1990, Afternoons; January 1990, April 1991)
- Scally The Dog (puppet character; January 1989, April 1991)
- Tommy Boyd (third time; April 1991, December 1992)
- Glenn Kinsey (Mornings; Summer 1991, Afternoons; December 1991, December 1992, February 1993)
- Steven Ryde (voice only; February 1993, May 1998)
- Stephen Mulhern (May 1998, August 2002)
- Danielle Nicholls (May 1998, December 2001)
- Tom Darville (January 2000, December 2001)
- Andrea Green (January 2000, October 2000)
- David Leon (September 2001, December 2002)
- Leigh Morrison (September 2001, December 2002)
- Leah Charles (September 2001, December 2003)
- Michael Underwood (August 2002, December 2003)
- Tim Dixon (January 2003, December 2003)
- Gail McKenna (January 2003, October 2003, February 2004 - March 2004)
- Anna Williamson (Guest Presenter who filled in for Michael Underwood and other appearances; August 2003, early September 2003)
- Andy Jaye (January 2004, September 2004)
- Laura Jaye (January 2004, September 2004)
- Tim Dann (voice only; September 2004 - current)
- Taff (voice only; May 2006, December 2006)
- Sock Puppet DJ (January 2007 - present, a character who appears on adverts to say whether shows are on CITV or the CITV Channel)
[edit] CITV's 20th Birthday Bash
Around Christmas, 2002, Leah Charles and Michael Underwood announced to the viewers that CITV would be celebrating its 20th anniversary on Friday 3 January 2003. Past presenters and stars of past CITV shows were in the studio to celebrate and clips of past shows from the 80s & 90s were shown.
[edit] Past Presenters & Puppet Presenters Who Appeared on the show
The list of past presenters who appeared on the shows.
- Matthew Kelly (1983)
- Gary Terzza (1987 - 1988)
- Roland Rat (Puppet Character, 1986 - 1987)
- Jeanne Downs (1989 - 1991)
- Scally The Dog (Puppet Character, 1989 - 1991)
- Tom Darville (2000 - 2001)
- Andrea Green (2000)
Plus some of Children's ITV's characters from past shows:
- Grotbags (a green faced witch from the Children's ITV shows, Emu's World and her own show Grotbags.
- Elizabeth Estensen (who came in to talk about her time playing the character T-Bag in T-Bag Strikes Again)
Presenters Stephen Mulhern & Danielle Nicholls were not able to be involved in the celebration because they both were taking part in pantomimes at the time. They both sent separate video recorded messages which were shown on air.
Features on the show were stuff such as programmes from the 1980s & 1990s (except the present decade). The many presenters they had on, puppet characters assisting, embarrising moments and Saturday morning shows they had up to SMTV Live (which was still being made and broadcast at the time).
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "ITV to end kids' TV production", Leigh Holmwood, The Guardian, 20 June 2006. Retrieved on 2006-06-05.
- ^ "CITV Channel", BroadcastNow. Retrieved on 2006-06-05. subscription required
- ^ "Grade: no future for kids' programmes on ITV Network", Chris Tryhorn, The Guardian, 13 March 2007. Retrieved on 2006-06-05.
[edit] External links
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