Blue Peter - Airtime

Airtime

Blue Peter first aired once a week on Mondays, for a duration of 15 minutes. From 28 September 1964 until 1995 it was shown twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays, extending its duration to 25 minutes. Between 1995 and 2000, it was broadcast on Monday, Wednesday and Friday on BBC One, and from 2000, it was aired at 17:00, due to Newsround moving to a later slot. In 2002, repeats of Blue Peter were shown on the newly-launched CBBC Channel along with spin-off shows Blue Peter Unleashed and Blue Peter Flies the World, and from 2003 a new arrangement involved new material being shown daily, on both BBC One and the CBBC channel. From 2006 the show's output began to be reduced, first by dropping the Friday edition, then by running the programme from Monday to Wednesday then Tuesday to Thursday. In May 2007, it was announced another day would be dropped, leaving Tuesday and Wednesday the only days on which Blue Peter was broadcast on BBC One, although repeats and spin-offs continued to be broadcast on the CBBC channel. The BBC claims that the purpose of returning to two shows a week is to increase the quality of the programme's content rather than simply a means of reducing production costs. The schedule was changed again in February 2008 when Blue Peter was moved to the 4:35 pm slot on BBC One, due to The Weakest Link moving from BBC Two replacing Neighbours which was bought by Five. However, this most recent timing change has led to a decrease in viewing figures, with fewer than 100,000 viewers, down from around 335,000 in 2003. The BBC Trust recommended the BBC to produce plans, detailing how they intend to increase viewership, by mid-2009. In September 2010 the show was moved from Wednesdays and Tuesdays to Mondays and Tuesdays at the same time slot, this went on until December 2011, from Thursday, 12 January 2012 the show would only be broadcast once a week on Thursdays on the CBBC Channel at 5:45 pm and will be repeated on BBC One on Fridays at 4:35 pm.

In October 2012, Blue Peter will end its 54-year run on BBC One and only air on the CBBC Channel. The move came as a part of budget cuts at the corporation; children's programming will be removed entirely from BBC One and Two following the completion of the digital switchover, as viewership figures determined that 93% of its target audience is now watching the BBC's children's programming on CBBC (including first-run episodes of Blue Peter), and few viewers are watching them solely on BBC One.

News of the move was met with criticism by some; The Guardian's Lucy Morgan felt that the move from BBC One would desecrate the programme's legacy, turning it into a "mere common-or-Percy-Thrower's-garden programme instead of the beloved national treasure it is."