Promoting education and learning
CBeebies will continue to offer a mix of education and entertainment via ’learning through play’.

Most content will be linked to the Foundation Stage Curriculum and will be developed and produced by younger children specialists. Examples include Number Jacks (working title) and Something Special. CBeebies has a commitment to deliver more educational programming than other channels aimed at a similar audience.

bbc.co.uk/cbeebies and our interactive TV services continue to offer educative and entertaining content for children, parents and carers.

This year:

• CBeebies will launch its Healthy Eating Active campaign.
• Springwatch, part of a pan-BBC season, will provide the nation’s youngest audiences with their own unique perspective of nature in the spring.

Stimulating creativity and cultural excellence
CBeebies continues to invest in UK-originated programming, making it distinctive in the market.

Content will stimulate a child’s interest in a range of subjects from art and cookery to rhythm and music. Examples include Boogie Beebies (with its mix of dance and songs), Big Cook Little Cook (cooking) and Doodle Do (make and do).

Our magazine titles such as Tikkabilla offer a journey of discovery and learning, while our drama and storytelling programmes, for example The Roly Mo Show, will remain an excellent stimulus for a child’s imagination. We also aim to co-produce a high-quality UK animation during this period.

bbc.co.uk/cbeebies is a natural extension of the TV service and provides additional original content, games and creative opportunities for younger children to interact and participate with their favourite content.

We will encourage creative participation in the channel on a daily basis, from celebrating birthdays to using interactive television applications specifically developed to support and complement the channel’s output.

This year we will:

• Launch new UK animation with Underground Ernie and a second season of Charlie and Lola.
• Debut landmark programmes including Jackanory Jr and In the Night Garden.

Reflecting the UK’s nations, regions and communities
A sense of belonging is important to young children. Balamory, our unique younger children drama, continues with storylines that are designed to foster a sense of community and that introduce children to basic social skills. Me Too reflects life in the nursery and world beyond, introducing toddlers to new experiences and communities.

CBeebies will aim to break down potential barriers between children by portraying people from a wide range of backgrounds and of differing abilities.

This year:

• We will launch a new schedule to more effectively mirror younger children’s lifestyles with zones that better complement their daily routines.
• The new schedule will include an after-nursery block to strengthen our connection with viewers at the top end of our age range.
• We will also launch a new ’wake-up’ zone to complement the explore, puzzle, activity and wind-down zones.

Building digital Britain
CBeebies is a digital channel. We complement our linear programming with interactive digital content across the younger children genres, from storytelling to make do and believe, enabling audiences to participate or to deepen their experience of programmes.

Last year, reach to CBeebies dropped slightly as the number of digital households increased, but CBeebies still had the highest reach in the UK digital TV younger children’s market, and overall viewer numbers actually grew. The CBeebies online service also saw substantial growth, nearly doubling its total page impressions over the year.

However, looking ahead as digital households grow and as new channels become available – especially on Freeview – we can expect to see some decline in performance in real terms.

In 2006/2007 CBeebies will continue to deliver content and services that our young viewers and their parents demand. To do this, our key priorities are to:

• Change the structure of our schedule, reducing repetition for viewers and encouraging them to join in at new points of the day and to stay for longer.
• Introduce more new UK titles across the range of programming including Jackanory Jr and In the Night Garden.
• Strengthen our commitment to our viewers at the top end of our target age range.

The following targets are agreed with Ofcom each calendar year:

• 80% of hours to be originations (original productions include all BBC-commissioned programming, including originations and all repeats of programming first shown on any BBC public service channel).
• Around 90% of output hours will be of UK/EU origin.

• To spend at least 30% of relevant programme production budgets, representing 25% of hours of productions by volume, outside the M25.
• To maintain the current broad range of programmes produced outside the M25, and broad range of different production centres used across the UK.