http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/

• Cbeebies is a television Channel produced by the BBC and is aimed for young children under the age of 6.

• It was first launched on 11th February 2002 and is still being broadcast. • The international CBeebies channel is commercial-free and owned by BBC

Worldwide. Michael Carrington is responsible for the creation and development of all original series, acquired or co-produced programmes for the Cartoon Network & Children's Channels within the UK, Europe, Middle East and Africa.

• Cbeebies is regular and is available all the time on different channels and over more then one type of media. For example internet, radio and the TV.

• Cbeebies is broadcast over more than one channel now which gives viewers more choice and freedom.

• Here is one episode of bob the builder to view click the link below…

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHHuPwD0kWg&feature=related

• The cbeebies is made by the BBC and they are a public service broadcaster. In the UK they are funded by an annual television licence fee which is charged to all United Kingdom households, companies and organisations using equipment capable of recording and/or receiving live television broadcasts. In the financial year 2008/2009, the television licence cost £139.50. The licence fee went up to £142.50 on 1 April 2009.

• The BBC produces texts to inform, educate and entertain its audiences. The Cbeebies clearly does educate and entertain young children. They provide learning in a fun and enjoyable way for these under 6 year olds.

• The BBC is very mainstream as it targets everyone and caters for all different types of people. The reason why the BBC cater for a mainstream audience is because the public fund it and it is a public service broadcaster. Although the BBC target a mainstream audience Cbeebies is targeted at a niche audience due to the fact it sets out to attract young children under the age of 6.

• Cbeebies is targeted to young children under the age of 6 years old.• They want to ‘deliver the world's finest content to young children, putting interactive

and on-demand at the heart of what they offer. There purpose is to encourage active play and inspire creativity and imagination across their platforms; on-air and online’.

"Learning through play" is their motivating philosophy. This is quoted from the site http://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/tv/network/channels/cbeebies.shtml

• Cbeebies site allows the small kids to read books along with the computer, sing along with some songs, play games and colour in pictures.

• From this picture below you can tell that Cbeebies is targeting a young audience due to the animated cow, the bright colours and words at the bottom.

• Web 2.0 has made a big impact on Cbeebies due to the fact it allows the audience to experience more and interact much more. For example on the website the children can play games and read books along with the computer whereas before this was not available. http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/

• Before web 2.0 Cbeebies would still be able to be broadcasted but the facilities we have now were not available then which meant kids programmes were very limited. All children were able to do was watch what was on at the schedule times but now it has all changed. Cbeebies use to be on all the time from 6am-6pm this was because its audience would watch TV the most in the morning, day and early evening. Now time shifting is available which allows children to watch their programmes any time they want and not just at the scheduled times.

• Cbeebies is available on the TV (BBC), internet and radio (BBC radio 7).

• Thanks to web 2.0 audiences have much more control over it and control when and how they watch Cbeebies and use it. The red button allows Cbeebies audience to play games and interact and answer quizzes for example Noddy. The red button also allows the children to be involved by giving them the chance to be CBeebies Star of the Week.

• Web 2.0 moves audiences away from scheduling.

• It has now been said that there is ‘ TV for the ipod generation’ this means that viewers choose what they want to watch and are able to watch repeats whenever they want in little outbursts. This gives them more control than they have ever had before.

• BBC Iplayer is available to Cbeebies audiences and this allows them to watch episode they have missed. This takes them away from scheduling and makes the programmes available to them for much longer. As well as BBC Iplayer viewers can also watch episodes on the Cbeebies website so they always have access to their programmes.

• Audiences can experience this text in more than just one way thanks to web 2.0, Cbeebies can be experienced on the TV, radio and internet.

• There are many merchandises for the Cbeebies from things such as toys, t-shirts, dressing up costumes, comics, DVDs, shows at the theatre and bed covers. Cbeebies has expanded a lot from just being a TV channel but now allows children to experience it in different ways.

• Cbeebies is targeting a very small audience and I feel this gives them a big advantage because expanding on children's TV programmes allows producers to move with modern day. As time goes on children are learning in different and faster ways than before and I feel this opens a lot of doors for children's programmes. For example children use the internet at a much younger age which enable them to learn faster and in a different way also young children own gadgets such as Nintendo's and are familiar with is so maybe in time there will be more Cbeebies learning activities for kids to do.

• The future may be that the children can decide what is best for the characters when they are put in a certain situation. This will increasing help them to see the rights and wrongs. 2.0 will help enable this because children will be participating more with the red button and the internet to do this.

• Cbeebies may decide to go 3D so the experience for the viewers is much more exciting and gives them a sense of realism and involvement.

• The Cbeebies site is available to its audiences and now this allows them to interact such as play games, read books, colour ect. This is thanks to what web 2.0 has to offer. Before we had no choice but to watch what the producers made but now we are able to have our own input and do things the way we want to. This is supported by David Gauntlets theory of web 2.0, he suggested that with the new development of technology media is now a two way thing. This has expanded a lot from media web 1.0 because it gives the audience a chance to do more and become much more independent. We still can only watch what they produce and what is available but we can experience it the way we want and when we want.

• Blumber and Katz suggested the uses and gratification theory It assumes members of the audience are not passive but take an active role in interpreting and integrating media into their own lives. The theory also holds audiences responsible for choosing media to meet its needs. The theory states there is 4 key responses that people use the media for and these are information, personal identity, social interaction and entertainment. The audience of Cbeebies may watch this for education purposes, learning about the best way to act, to enable them to connect with friends because children talk about the characters and come across them everyday and this is a brilliant way to build social personal relationships and also for their own enjoyment.

• Children watch the programmes and go onto the site to help expand their knowledge and give them a chance to be creative. It also gives young children a fun and exciting experience in education seeing as on the site the kids can read along with book and sing songs. This broadens these young children's knowledge and gives them a step forward.

• Cbeebies caters for a niche audience and because their audience is for young children under 6 they need to make the texts appropriate for them. Children need to be able to learn from it and understand what is going on. This is suggested in the reception theory created by David Morley which suggest that different kinds of people can read texts in different ways and take different meanings from it. There are 3 types of readings; Dominant, or Preferred, Reading, opposition reading and Negotiated Reading. I think children take the dominant reading because they are small and don't really have a wide understanding so they will accept anything that is provided for them and learn from it.

• Wikinomics which was created by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams suggests that mass collaboration is encouraging consumers, employees, suppliers, partners and competitors to share information and ideas. But I don’t feel this fits in with Cbeebies seeing as the target audience is very young and don’t really have much to share. Web 2.0 has been great for Cbeebies due to the fact that young children can participate in story time and play games but apart from that I don’t really think they have a huge input to the shows so Wikinomics is not supported by this text.

• Cbeebies has an issue with copyright because many episode of there's is available on YouTube and viewers can view them over and over again for free. Most programmes on Cbeebies like bob the builder have DVD sets out and people will not buy these if they are available on the net for free.

• I don’t feel there is an issue with creativity due to the fact the programmes need to suit and attract one type of audience.

• Because Cbeebies is broadcasted on BBC the programmes need to have a purpose they need to be able to educate and entertain their audience otherwise issues will arise.