New BBC channels get launch dates

Story Tellers with Danny John-Jules: Part of Cbeebies

The BBC's new children's digital TV channels, CBBC and CBeebies, will go on air next month, the corporation has announced.

The two services - the first of four new digital TV channels the BBC is planning to launch - are due to launch on Monday 11 February.

They will take over the daytime slots used by the corporation's youth entertainment channel, BBC Choice, and its digital arts and culture channel, BBC Knowledge.

CBBC will broadcast between 7am and 7pm, followed in the evenings by BBC Choice, and CBeebies will broadcast between 6am and 7pm, after which BBC Knowledge takes over.

CBBC will broadcast on BBC Choice and BBC One

The channels will have their own distinctive logos and identities, which will be carried through into children's programming on BBC One and Two.

In the BBC's other bids for digital channels, BBC Knowledge has been given the green light by the government to transform itself into BBC Four.

But proposals for BBC Choice to become BBC Three were turned down by the Department for Culture Media and Sport - although the channel still hopes that modified plans for a distinctive entertainment channel aimed at young people will ultimately be accepted.

But whatever happens to the channels for adults, the channels for children look secure.

CBBC and CBeebies will continue to broadcast even if the modified plans for BBC Three are rejected.

Tweenies: Part of the pre-school offering

Similarly, CBeebies would continue to broadcast even if, for some unforeseen reason, BBC Four failed to launch.

CBBC controller Nigel Pickard said 11 February marked "an exciting new era for children's television".

He said the channels were "a combination of the highest proportion of original programming and CBBC's reputation for making the best programmes across all the genres".

The BBC has also unveiled plans for new children's programmes that are due to open over the next few months.

A new Sunday morning show on CBBC, entitled Smile, has been commissioned to run for 60 weeks.

CBBC is also working with BBC Radio 1 to adapt for TV the official UK Top 40 show.

CBBC Controller Pickard: "Exciting new era"

And the channel is working with US-based Sesame Workshop and ABC, in Australia, to produce a new drama, Two Down Under.

The coming-of-age tale chronicles the lives of two teenagers who find themselves transplanted from their respective homes in the US and UK to a veterinary clinic on the outskirts of Sydney.

CBeebies will première the new, 10-minute series from Ragdoll, Teletubbies Everywhere, to complement the original, phenomenally popular Teletubbies.