BBC, Why Have You Made My Kids Sad?

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Living in NZ means that kids TV is generally crap.
Yeah, I know, coming from the UK means I have grown up on top TV from the BBC.

And so, my kids Jack and Meg have popping onto the Web for as long as I can remember to watch snippettes of BBC kids shows on their once top site, CBeebies. We also download the CBeebies podcast and get to travel around with the BBC for kids in the car.

Yesterday my daughter wanted to watch Mr Maker but the CBeebies site had changed in structure and she was a little lost. "Dad, I need help! I can't find Mr Maker!!". I pop on, and think nice update (much cleaner) and a little clicking around to get used to the new layout we find Mr Maker and I watch as Meg starts from her own homepage and re-routes her brain pattern.

And then she clicks on her chosen video snippet.
Oooh, using the BBC iPlayer to stream, nice, heard lots about it ...


And that's that then!

I've tried to let the BBC know but all the links to their 'Contact us' end up on a "Oops, this page could not be found". So that's the end of the CBeebies for us in New Zealand and I have two very sad kids to which I now have to explain copyright issues with ...

Comments

  1. PeteNovember 14, 2009 8:54 am

    The contact us link should be fixed now. Thanks for letting me know.

    Right issues are one of the reasons why the video's are unavailable. Internally there's been quite a few debates about whether or not some shows or clips should be available worldwide, for example I've heard the experience outside the UK of things like http://www.bbc.co.uk/wildlifefinder/ are less than ideal.

    Standard disclaimer: I work for the BBC, in the Children's department making the websites. The comments I've made are my own and in no way any kind of official BBC response.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mike RiversdaleNovember 16, 2009 10:10 am

    Awesome for your response Pete, appreciate it.

    And, I do appreciate the copyright position ... just trying to explain why it's suddenly changed (with no warning) to a 4-year-old and a 6-year-old is ... *Ahem* .. a challenge. They've moved on of course and are happy with other kids sites

    ReplyDelete
  3. PeteNovember 17, 2009 9:42 am

    It's no problem at all Mike, I've got it easy, I'm not the one having to explain copyright law to a 4 and 6 year old. :)

    If it's any consolation, all the games (and some have video content inside them) are still available outside the UK.

    ReplyDelete

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