By Chip Chandler — Digital Content Producer
The first-ever 24/7 PBS Kids channel will be available Saturday to Panhandle PBS audiences on air and online.
The free service features educational programming 24 hours a day, seven days a week, ensuring that the high-quality content is available to all children and caregivers on a platform and at a time that works for them.
The channel, which replaces V’Me, can be viewed over the air on channel 2.2 and on Suddenlink channel 126.
“This is our latest initiative supporting early learning in the community and directly supports our mission of bringing even more hours of quality programming to all ages,” said Kevin Ball, Panhandle PBS’s general manager. “PBS Kids will make it easy for local children to watch their favorite series during primetime and after-school hours when viewing is high.”
A new national study of parents with children ages 2-6 finds TV viewing is one of the top ways that families spend time together, with 89 percent of parents reporting they watch TV together as a family, 74 percent in favor of anytime access to educational programming and 37 percent ranking PBS Kids as the best use of family screen time.
The channel also will be available as a live stream on pbskids.org and on the free PBS Kids Video App for mobile and tablet devices, which has been downloaded 16.4 million times and totaled 4.2 billion streams last year.
Panhandle PBS will continue to feature daily children’s programming on our primary PBS channel with different options than the 24/7 channel.
The PBS Kids 24/7 channel launch schedule includes the following 21 PBS Kids series: Arthur, Bob the Builder, Caillou, The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That!, Clifford the Big Red Dog, Cyberchase, Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, Dinosaur Train, Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman, Nature Cat, Odd Squad, Peg + Cat, Ready Jet Go!, Sesame Street, Sid the Science Kid, Splash and Bubbles, Super Why!, Thomas & Friends, Wild Kratts, Wordgirl and Wordworld.
Beginning April 21, the new channel will debut PBS Kids Family Night, weekly family viewing events featuring movie specials or themed programming every Friday from 6 to 8 p.m., and repeating on Saturday and Sunday evenings.
Chip Chandler is a digital content producer for Panhandle PBS. He can be contacted at Chip.Chandler@actx.edu, at @chipchandler1 on Twitter and on Facebook.
