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New powers for more UK-made children’s shows

Following pressure from children’s media campaigners, including Teletubbies creator Anne Wood, the Digital Economy Act includes new powers for UK media regulator Ofcom which will prove a vital lifeline to the UK’s ailing children’s production sector.

The Act now includes legislation on broadband connectivity, online child protection, and new legislation on children’s media.

The legal change will give the broadcast regulator Ofcom the power to make Public Service Broadcasters (BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5) invest more in UK-made children’s productions. The new regulation is designed to make broadcasters negotiate an appropriate settlement for children with the media regulator.

The new powers, which have the backing of campaigners Save Kids’ Content (initiated by Teletubbies creator, Anne Wood CBE) and the Producers Alliance for Cinema and Television (Pact), are intended to reverse the significant decline in UK made children’s programmes that has nearly become terminal in the past decade.

“I am grateful to the broadcasters for working with me on this as it gives them the opportunity to make a difference. I know that if all parts of the industry work together and if we get this right, we can lift the lid on a huge well of untapped potential existing in our creative industries and once again create the world-renowned programming—and even more of it—that our children and grandchildren deserve. It is my mission in life to make children’s lives happy.” said Baroness Benjamin.

The number of new British-made children’s programmes has been in sharp decline (a 93% fall) since legislative changes in the early 2000s. Since the Communications Act 2003 downgraded the children’s genre from Tier 2 to Tier 3 programming, spending on this genre among Public Service Broadcasters (PSBs) has seen an average year-on-year decrease of 13% in real terms, falling from £196m in 2004 to £89m in 2015. As a result, less than 1% of children’s television hours currently available for UK children are original, first-run, British programmes—the rest are repeats and foreign imports.

Although children are consuming more and more content online, television viewing remains strong with 87% of 4–15 year olds still watching live broadcast. The Government has at last acknowledged that they need to intervene.

Anne Wood CBE, whose children’s television achievements include Rosie and Jim, Teletubbies, In The Night Garden and more, added “I am very lucky to have had some success in children’s television. Unfortunately, it is far less common now for new exciting children’s programmes to get through to British screens. There has been a 93% decline in children’s programming made by commercial PSBs. On this trajectory British-made children’s programmes are set for extinction.”