Millions of Freeview users will lose popular ITV channel this year

Within months, millions of Freeview and Freesat users are set to lose a popular ITV channel. It’s been confirmed that the free-to-air linear children’s service, CITV, is set to be shut down for good. It means from early autumn, the popular children’s channel will no longer be available, as all of ITV’s children’s content will move over to ITVX Kids, a new section on ITV’s new streaming service. Fortunately, ITVX, which replaced ITV Hub last year, has a free version where you will be able to access these kids’ content when the shift happens.

While the free version of ITVX is available for most devices, several older TVs, Freeview and Freesat boxes are not able to access the new streaming service, meaning that they will miss out on shows previously available on CITV.

According to Cordbusters UK, the new ITVX Kids homepage will be launched in July 2023 and will be rolled out across the summer holiday period.

After that, in early autumn the children’s channel will be discontinued on Freeview, Freesat and the rest of the platforms.

The new ITVX Kids homepage will include over 100 titles in one convenient place, offering viewers over 1,000 hours of programming to choose from.

Craig Morris, Managing Editor of ITVX said: “We’re really excited to launch this dedicated destination for kids on ITVX, which will be home to a wealth of content including new series, recognisable brands and existing favourites for a range of ages, all in one child-safe area, with editorial curation to guide viewing.

“The wealth of content will be available to stream for free, with the option for parents to choose ad-free viewing, through a subscription to ITVX Premium.”

Not all of ITV’s children-oriented content will leave their TV channels, however. Some shows will also remain on the LittleBe pre-school segment on ITVBe.

Meanwhile, from September, ITV2 could air children’s content in the early mornings, according to Cordbusters UK.

READ MORE: Where to stream ITVX on Sky, Freeview, Samsung TVs, and Androids

Even though Freeview will no longer have CITV within a few months, the subscription-free TV-watching service offers more than 60,000 hours of TV and over 1,500 box sets across on-demand players at no cost.

If you have Freeview, you could still watch shows on ITVX, along with other streaming platforms like BBC iPlayer, All 4, My5 and UKTV Play on your mobile or tablet with Freeview Play.

However, with Freeview, you could miss hundreds of channels that are available with other set-top boxes like Sky Q and Virgin TV 360

Another downside is that Freeview is only available through an aerial, not a satellite dish and most TVs can’t record shows without buying a separate set-top box.