After 42 years of bringing some of the most iconic children’s television to audiences and launching the careers of some of our favourite household names, CITV is set to close permanently.

Launched on 29 December 1980, CITV, which stands for Children’s Independent Television, was originally introduced as Watch It! before being rebranded as Children’s ITV in 1983, the ITV programming block for younger viewers. CITV became the home of beloved shows such as Tots TV, Fraggle Rock, Art Attack, Horrid Henry and My Parents Are Aliens. It also helped launch the careers of presenters including Holly Willoughby (Ministry of Mayhem), Cat Deeley (The Disney Club), and Stephen Mulhern (Finger Tips).

Whilst shows like SpongeBob SquarePants were widely regarded as the channel’s most viewed programmes, original UK productions embedded in the childhood memories of a generation also found soaring success on the channel.

Horrid Henry consistently drew strong ratings for CITV in the late 2000s and early 2010s, often hitting several hundred thousand viewers per episode on broadcast.

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CITV was broadcast in the late afternoon, perfectly timed for children returning home from school. After losing its late-afternoon programming slot in 2006, CITV was given a dedicated digital channel available on Freeview. This move allowed the brand to maintain a consistent presence for children’s programming, rather than being limited to traditional broadcast windows.

In addition to its standalone channel, ITV continued to carry CITV content during weekend morning slots, ensuring accessibility for audiences who relied on the main terrestrial service. During its weekend morning block, some flagship shows attracted audiences of up to 300,000–400,000 viewers, a significant number for a UK children’s broadcaster on digital terrestrial TV.

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The shift reflected a broader industry trend towards digital expansion and on-demand-style scheduling, giving younger viewers more flexibility in how and when they watched their favourite shows. However, as accessibility reached unprecedented levels and children increasingly turned to platforms like YouTube to watch their favourite shows on demand, traditional viewing habits began to shift dramatically.

By 2023, the vast majority of children in the UK had access to the internet through personal devices such as tablets and smartphones, industry reports suggested that well over 90% of households with children had connected devices, with iPads being especially common among younger viewers. This widespread digital access contributed to a steady decline in linear television audiences, ultimately signalling that the end was inevitable for the once-iconic brand.

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In response, the CITV channel on Freeview was ultimately shut down in 2023, with its content migrating to a dedicated “Kids” hub on ITV’s streaming platform, ITVX. At the same time, CITV’s remaining presence on linear television was scaled back, with its weekend morning programming block relocated to the much less frequented ITV2 channel. The three-year fix is now said to be coming to an end, as on Friday (3 April), it was claimed by a media account that this ITV2 block will be ending on 10 April, which “really means the end of the iconic CITV brand that’s been around for 42 years.”

The account wrote on X/Twitter: “Farewell CITV, this time for real,” adding that rival kids’ programming strand CBBC will acquire some of its shows, while the rest will remain on ITVX Kids.

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