CITV TO CLOSE IN SEPTEMBER FOLLOWING LAUNCH OF ITVX KIDS

ITV's children's TV channel CITV is to close on Friday 1st September at 9pm, according to scheduling data. The closure date has not been formerly announced by ITV at time of writing.

ITVX Kids launched in July and offered "more content than ever before, across a range of titles appealing to both school age and pre-school age children". The launch of the streaming service for children has led the broadcast to close linear channel CITV.

However, ITV will maintain the LittleBe pre-school segment on ITVBe and will offer some children’s content in the early mornings on ITV2 from September with strong cross promotion to ITVX.

ITV say the launch of ITVX Kids is part of "ITV’s continuing drive to supercharge its presence in streaming, delivering content to audiences however they want to watch it".

BARB viewing data, released by ITV, demonstrates that while the average amount of broadcast TV minutes of kids TV channels watched by 4-15 year olds per week has declined by -62% since 2019, unmatched viewing has risen by +30% in the same period, demonstrating the streaming first trend in kids viewing. 

Craig Morris, Managing Editor of ITVX said: “We’re really excited to launch this dedicated destination for kids on ITVX, which will be home to a wealth of content including new series, recognisable brands and existing favourites for a range of ages, all in one child-safe area, with editorial curation to guide viewing."

ITVX Kids is available on... you guessed it, ITVX.