BBC launches CBeebies app for iOS, Android and Kindle Fire
The BBC has launched a free app for smartphones and tablets utilising iOS and Android, as well as the Kindle Fire, which offer a series of mini games based on the Alphablocks, Octonauts, Tree Fu Tom and Something Special brands.
CBeebies Playtime was released by BBC Worldwide and joins the CBeebies Magazine app launched last year on iOS. It allows children and parents to log-in and create customised profiles offering educational information.
This follows a study by Ofcom which found that 35 per cent of UK households with children now own a tablet with 71 per cent of children who use such devices using them to play games. This was followed by 44 per cent who watched short video clips, 40 per cent who browsed the internet and 37 per cent watching TV shows or films.
Joe Godwin, director, BBC Children's said: "It's about the changing landscape of consumption and device use. We've just had to come to terms with the fact that linear television is not – although this is some way ahead – going to be the dominant way people consume CBeebies going forward, said Godwin.
"We're not leading the audience to a new place: we're following them, although we're trying to be hot on their heels. They're moving quite quickly.
“The stats have just blown us away. Children's preferred way of looking at stuff is still the telly, but their second preferred way is now the tablet.”