
After decades on the air, CITV is due to go down next month, and it’s safe to say that viewers are sad.
The beloved children’s network, which debuted in 1983 as a block on ITV before becoming its own channel in 2006, will cease operations in September 2023 as the broadcaster undergoes major restructuring.
Confirming the news, ITV told Sky News: ‘As a consequence of this new streaming approach and responding to the changing ways children and their parents are increasingly accessing content, the CITV broadcast channel will close after the summer holidays on 1st September.’
ITVX Kids, which premiered in July, will instead offer school-age and pre-school-age children’s programming, as stated earlier this year.
ITV has said: ‘Launching in July 2023, and rolling out across the school summer holiday period, the new consolidated children’s offering will also see ITV taking its approach to 6-12s content, streaming-only, from early Autumn 2023.
‘The Kids ITVX homepage, accessed within a child-safe ITVX Kids profile, will bring together over 100 brilliant titles in a dedicated homepage, with over 1000 hours of programming to choose from, a near doubling of the current offer, with curated rails and collections.’

However, many parents have complained that ITVX Kids sounds too much like an X-rated platform, with the former ratings system assigning an X classification to films featuring explicit sex and a XXX rating to adult films.
One Redditer wrote: ‘ITVX Kids just sounds like a baffling name, especially considering the X rated jokes ITVX has attracted.
‘They could have literally just kept CITV and moved it to streaming – it’s a known brand anyway and has strength.’

Another person added: ‘ITVX does indeed sound like a porn channel. I didn’t even know it existed because I don’t watch linear TV anymore unless I’m at someone else’s house. ITVX Kids therefore, sounds like…’
Others just contended that the name change was unnecessary, regardless of what they’d chosen as a substitute.
‘Yes they should’ve just kept the CITV name. Much the same way BBC3 went online while keeping that name and brand,’ said one viewer, while someone else added: ‘ITVX Kids, just rolls right off the tongue doesn’t it.’
For decades, viewers have admired CITV, which has produced masterpieces such as My Parents Are Aliens, The Worst Witch, Raggy Dolls, Art Attack, and Horrid Henry, as well as fan favourites such as Fun House, Danger Mouse, Rainbow, and Rosie And Jim.
Meanwhile, current programmes including Mystery Lane and The Rubbish World of Dave Spud, as well as animated series like Mr Bean, Sooty, and Bob The Builder, will transfer to ITVX Kids.