BBC launches first children’s voice experience

The BBC has launched its first voice experience for children, allowing kids to play along with their favourite characters via Amazon Echo smart speakers.

The BBC Kids Skill launches today with three games featuring CBeebies characters – Little Monster’s Hide and Seek, Andy’s Adventure Dance Party and Go Jetter’s Glitchy Facts.

Children and adults can access the content by asking their smart speaker to “open CBeebies” and then selecting which game they want to play.

In Little Monster’s Hide and Seek players must identifying different sounds to find Little Monster’s secret hiding place; Andy’s Adventure Dance Party lets children sing and dance along to songs about animals, dinosaurs or prehistoric creatures; while Go Jetter’s Glitchy Facts is a quiz format.

“Interacting with audio opens up a world of exciting opportunities to explore for the BBC’s content for children,” said Mukul Devichand, executive editor, BBC Voice and AI.

“Starting with CBeebies, we are going to release a number of pieces for children over the coming months, working closely with the much-loved characters and stories. The technology is still new and we’re experimenting with what works well and what our audiences really want on these new platforms.”

Andy Webb, head of voice and AI Products, BBC Design and Engineering, said: “People are increasingly using voice platforms and smart speakers, and we’re looking at how to best serve them.

“We’ve made excellent progress with our BBC voice service, bringing live radio and podcasts to these devices, and now we’re looking at how to make the most of the interactivity they offer. The BBC Kids Skill is a great example of this.”