Tiny Pop is a free-to-air children's television channel in the United Kingdom, owned by Sony Pictures Television. Broadcast on many of the major digital television platforms in the UK, Tiny Pop, which was launched on 8 September 2003 as Pop Plus, and shows, its target audience is children aged 7 and under. The station broadcasts principally animated content sourced from various distributors.
History
The channel began on 8 September 2003 as Pop Plus, a secondary service to Pop. The channel was licensed to air animation and music, it operated the same broadcast hours as its sister channel and was not a direct timeshift of its sibling, instead offering an alternative mix of the channel's content.. On 27 July 2004, it was relaunched as Tiny Pop, which allowed the main Pop to refocus on slightly older children and reduce its use of preschooler shows. As with other CSC channels, on-screen presenters are rarely used: programmes are introduced either by caption and voiceover alone, or through animated characters. For a time during the mid-2000s, a group of animated monkeys, known as the Cheeky Monkeys, would talk about cartoons, read out jokes from viewers and show artwork; from the end of June 2009, they were replaced with three new hosts, Molly, Leo and Pip. Tiny Pop initially broadcast on satellite TV - Sky from the channel's launch, and Freesat from the launch of the platform in 2008. On 11 October 2007, Tiny Pop was launched on Virgin Media, along with its sister channel Pop. Pop was removed in 2011, but was brought back on 25 August 2016. The station has also been made available over other cable systems. On 14 July 2016, Tiny Pop +1 was temporarily replaced by Pop Max. The channel aired back-to-back episodes of a show from POP. Tiny Pop +1 returned on 1 December 2016. The channel ran a second time from 9 February 2017 to 25 April 2017. On 3 September 2018, Tiny Pop unveiled a new logo after nine years in use.
On 23 October 2014, Tiny Pop was launched on Freeview, running daily from 3 pm to 7 pm in a slot timeshared with the Community Channel. On 7 January 2015, Tiny Pop was launched fully on DTT and as from 15 March 2017, is now broadcast 24 hours a day on Freeview. Round-the-clock service continues on satellite and cable. Prior to January 2015, the channel had broadcast billed programmes from 0600 to 2230, teleshopping content from 2230 to 0130, and a 'Through the Night' programming block from 0130 to 0600. From 1 January 2015, the schedule changed to run billed content from 0600 to 0000, with 'Through the Night' for the remaining six hours, with the teleshopping block dropped; sister channel Pop had also removed its prior teleshopping block ahead of its move onto Freeview. Sister channel Pop also showed Tiny Pop programmes until February 2015. On 15 March 2017, Tiny Pop changed its service on Freeview, moving to the Local Television multiplexes across the UK, meaning that the channel is only available on Freeview where a local television service is broadcast.
