ITV kids chief exits as department closes

ITV Productions kids controller Anne Brogan is negotiating her exit following the closure of the division and around 20 redundancies.

ITV Productions kids controller Anne Brogan is negotiating her exit following the closure of the division and around 20 redundancies.

In June, Broadcastrevealed that workers from London, Manchester and Leeds were told that the department was being shut down, following ITV's decision not to commission any new children's programmes from 2006.

According to a former ITV executive, only a 'handful' of employees now remain working on two programmes - animated series Pocoyoand Supernormal- which are due to finish production in the autumn.

Brogan, who joined Granada Kids as head of drama and then became controller in 2004, is understood to be leaving at the end of the month to set up her own business. At last year's Edinburgh International Television Festival, Brogan said commercial kids TV in the UK was in 'complete crisis'.

ITV1 is currently showing no weekday afternoon children's programming, instead replacing it with The Price Is Rightand Morse: 20 Years.

In September, Ofcom rejected a proposal to slash CITV output on ITV1 from an average of eight hours per week to two.

An ITV spokesperson said: 'As confirmed earlier this year, the closure of ITV Productions kids is going ahead.'