Job losses loom as ITV restructures kids net

ITV has put several of the team at its CiTV kids net at risk of redundancy.

The UK broadcaster said several positions are under review, including Jamila Metran’s head of programming role.

The changes are designed to bring CiTV into line with the running of its other digital nets, according to ITV, under the stewardship of Rosemary Newell, head of digital channels.

“We regularly review our operations across the business to ensure that we are structured as efficiently and effectively as possible,’ a spokesman said.

“We are proposing to bring CITV in line with the way that the other ITV digital channels are run, which would mean the commissioning and acquisition of children’s programming being carried out by the existing genre teams.”

The other job losses, numbering nine in total, will come from the CiTV creative team in Manchester.

“We have reviewed the Manchester-based CITV creative operation and have proposed absorbing this work into the centralised ITV Creative team, which handles all promotional activity for ITV’s channels,” an ITV spokesman said.

Work that was specifically carried out for CiTV, will be carried out by the core London-based creative team under the new plan (the Manchester team can apply for the roles in the capital).

ITV said the changes will not affect the on-air look and feel of its kids service.

ITV has been criticised for scaling back its investment in kids programming in the wake of changes that reduced its regulatory commitment to kids content.

The BBC is by some distance the largest commissioner of UK-originated kids programming, but CiTV has ordered a handful of original kids series in recent times including Bear Grylls Survival School, and Thunderbirds are Go.

UK trade publication Broadcast first reported the news of the CiTV restructuring.