[tellyblues]

Baffling. Broadcasters should put stuff out on their linear channels which you acknowledge there is limited demand for compared to what they currently do... why?

The quiz shows are there because the audience for the traditional CITV block was waning (and their 45 other attempts to fill the slot didn't work out either), and the advertising revenue was falling off a cliff. What makes you think young people, 20 years on and with a proliferation of on demand options giving them basically whatever they want immediately, seek it? 

Children don't want an afternoon block of programming on a 'normal' channel. Increasingly they don't want a linear channel at all.

I haven't suggested that ITV should do anything but they can't expect no adverse effects for downplaying a particular demographic or even desperately trying to please another.

I've seen people comment that what is on BBC1 now rates far better than what the CBBC block used to as if only ratings matter, but they don't. Children and young people in general are vastly underrepresented on the main BBC channels.

Viewing figures were waning for the CBBC block too and all sorts of reasons were given including changing viewing habits but curiously nothing about the waning quality of programming. With any demographic, if there's a crap lineup of shows, you expect numbers to be down, so why should kids be treated any differently?