BBC may "rationalise" kids output

BBC director of television Jana Bennett has admitted that the corporation may "rationalise" its kids output in the wake of ITV's proposal to axe its CITV block on weekday evenings.

"We've looked at the question of children's journey into digital - it's an inevitable migration," said Bennett. "At some point kids will be switching off [the analogue strand]. Should we narrow our proposition a bit?"

She added that she thought ITV's decision, if approved, would be "damaging for children" and that for the BBC, the issue was more "long term" but would need to be resolved by switchover.

Yesterday BBC One controller Peter Fincham said that he had "no plans" to ditch kids from the channel, but conceded: "Long term, who knows?"