What channel is CBBC?

CBBC is channel 201 on Freeview, immediately below CBeebies on 202. It is Sky 607, Virgin Media 701 and Freesat 600. Like CBeebies, the number is national and does not change by region.

Why do CBeebies and CBBC stop at 7pm?

Each children's channel shares its broadcast slot with an adult BBC channel. CBeebies hands over to BBC Four and CBBC hands over to BBC Three, both at 7pm. A two-minute ident fills the gap from 6.58pm. It is a deliberate handover, not a fault with your television.

What is on CBeebies before 6am?

Nothing but continuity. From roughly 1am to 5.30am the channel shows a closedown card reading "programmes start at 6.00am", and from 5.30am a looping This Is CBeebies sequence runs until the first programme at 6am.

What Channel Is CBeebies and CBBC? Numbers and On-Air Times

Q: What channel is CBeebies?

CBeebies is channel 202 on Freeview, with an HD simulcast on 204. On satellite and cable it is Sky 608, Virgin Media 702 and Freesat 644, with Freesat HD on 608. The channel number is the same everywhere in the UK — it does not vary by region.

Q: What time does CBeebies start and finish?

CBeebies programmes run from 6am to 6.58pm every day, weekends included. The last programme of the day is CBeebies Bedtime Stories, which ends at 6.58pm. From 5.30am a half-hour continuity loop called This Is CBeebies plays before the first proper programme at 6am.

Q: What time does CBBC start and finish?

CBBC programmes run from 7am to 6.58pm every day, including weekends. Between 5.30am and 7am the channel shows a continuity loop called This is CBBC! rather than programmes. Both CBBC and CBeebies close at exactly the same minute.

Q: Are CBeebies and CBBC still on TV?

Yes. Both channels are still broadcasting daily on Freeview, Sky, Virgin Media and Freesat. The BBC has discussed moving children's content towards iPlayer over time, but as of 2026 both channels are running a full daily schedule on television.

Page Contents

What channel is CBeebies?

CBeebies is channel 202 on Freeview. CBBC sits directly below it on 201. Both numbers are national — they are the same in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and every English region, so there is no regional variant to look up.

Here is every number for both channels across the four main UK platforms:

Platform	CBeebies	CBBC
Freeview	202	201
Freeview HD	204	—
Sky	608	607
Virgin Media	702	701
Freesat	644	600
Freesat HD	608	—

If neither channel appears on your box, it is almost always a retune rather than a coverage problem — both are carried on the public service multiplexes that reach nearly every UK household. Our Freeview channel guide covers retuning and the transmitter multiplexes in detail.

What time does CBeebies start and finish?

CBeebies programmes run from 6am to 6.58pm, every single day. That includes Saturdays and Sundays — unlike some children’s channels, CBeebies does not run a different weekend schedule window.

The day always closes the same way. The final programme is CBeebies Bedtime Stories, which finishes at 6.58pm.

What confuses people is the hour before 6am. The channel is technically broadcasting from 5.30am, but it is not showing programmes — it runs a half-hour continuity sequence called This Is CBeebies. Before that, from around 1am, there is a static closedown card that reads “programmes start at 6.00am”. So if you switch on at 5.45am expecting Bing, you will get the loop instead.

What time does CBBC start and finish?

CBBC programmes run from 7am to 6.58pm, every day. It starts an hour later than CBeebies and closes at exactly the same minute.

The same pattern applies at the start of the day: CBBC’s continuity loop, This is CBBC!, runs from 5.30am right through to 7am, when the first programme begins. On a typical weekday that first programme is something like Shaun the Sheep or Danger Mouse.

So the two channels bracket the day like this:

	CBeebies	CBBC
Closedown card	~1am – 5.30am	~1am – 5.30am
Continuity loop	5.30am – 6am	5.30am – 7am
Programmes	6am – 6.58pm	7am – 6.58pm
Hands over to	BBC Four at 7pm	BBC Three at 7pm

Why do both channels close at 6.58pm?

Because neither channel owns its broadcast slot for the full 24 hours. CBeebies time-shares with BBC Four, and CBBC time-shares with BBC Three. At 6.58pm the children’s channel stops, a two-minute ident plays — “This is BBC Four” or “This is BBC Three” — and at 7pm the adult channel takes over the same stream for the evening.

That is why the cut-off is such an oddly precise time. It is not the end of a schedule that happens to finish early; it is a handover with a fixed slot boundary.

It also answers a question we see a lot: no, your box has not lost the channel at teatime. Tune to CBeebies at 8pm and you will be watching BBC Four. BBC Four is Freeview 9 (HD 106, Sky 116, Freesat 108), and you can see what it is showing on our BBC Four TV guide.

Are CBeebies and CBBC still on TV?

Yes. Both are still broadcasting a full daily schedule on Freeview, Sky, Virgin Media and Freesat.

This question comes up because the BBC has talked publicly for several years about shifting children’s programming towards iPlayer, and CBBC in particular has been named in those discussions. Nothing has been switched off. As of 2026 both channels run every day on the numbers listed above.

Everything on both channels is also on BBC iPlayer, which has dedicated CBeebies and CBBC sections with full box sets. iPlayer is free with a UK TV Licence and has no advertising, which is the practical answer if you want a programme outside the 6am–6.58pm window.

What is actually on today?

For the full day’s schedule on either channel, including exact times for individual programmes, see our daily listings:

CBeebies TV guide — every programme, updated daily
CBBC TV guide — every programme, updated daily

Both pages carry the complete running order rather than highlights, so they are the place to look for a specific slot — the In the Night Garden time, for instance, or when a particular CBBC series airs.

The short version

CBeebies: Freeview 202, Sky 608, Virgin 702, Freesat 644. On air 6am–6.58pm daily.
CBBC: Freeview 201, Sky 607, Virgin 701, Freesat 600. On air 7am–6.58pm daily.
Both close at 6.58pm, handing over to BBC Four and BBC Three respectively at 7pm.
Before the start time you get a continuity loop, not programmes.
Everything is also free on BBC iPlayer.

Channel numbers and on-air times verified against the published Freeview schedule across seven consecutive days. Broadcast times are the same every day, weekends included.