BBC Children's Planning More Red-Button "Children's Commentaries" for Major Sporting Events

BBC Children's interactive division is planning to work with BBC Sport to produce "children's commentaries" for major sports events and make them available through the red button, according to a report in the UK broadcast-industry trade publication, Broadcast. BBC Children's assistant producer, Folake Adigun, told the publication that the move is designed to build on the success of the CBBC-produced youth-oriented commentaries on Formula 1 auto racing that have been available through the red button for some time now and that have apparently appealed to adults as well as their intended audience: "Adult viewers liked the fact that we were not getting bogged down with the technical jargon," Adigun said. "Now our hope is to work with BBC Sport on all major sporting events." Events likely to get red-button children's commentaries include next year's Wimbledon tournament and soccer World Cup.

Adigun also told Broadcast that BBC Children's is set to launch a red-button quiz for the second season of the Cbeebies show, "Numberjacks," which will premiere in October. "It's a multiple-choice quiz, but because of the age group of the 'Numberjacks' audience, we've simplified it to two options. They will be shown clips between 10 and 40 seconds long and will be asked questions like, 'Which Numberjack was hiding in that clip: one or nine?'"