Saving Kids’ TV
Jayne Kirkham responds to Ofcom’s Second Public Service Broadcasting Review
Since 2007, when it emerged that only 1% (1%!) of all children’s output is UK original content, Save Kids’ TV (SKTV), supported by bodies including the Guild, has campaigned extensively on behalf of young viewers and the industry that serves them.
Thankfully Ofcom listened to the cries in the wilderness, and, after singling children’s television out for special analysis, has at last published its recommendations to Government for the whole of Public Service Broadcasting.
Much of the early press attention has, naturally enough, fallen on the fate of Channel 4 but while the broadcasters look to their own destinies, SKTV will not forget children. After all Ofcom has entitled its paper Putting Viewers First.
So it is pleasing to see that, despite children’s TV not being listed as a top priority, Ofcom recognises “the value of choice in public service content for children”, and states that if this need for choice cannot be met sufficiently then “Government should consider funding specifically for children’s content.”
It's also heartening to see Ofcom calling for a speedy response, with decisions being made “within the next year”, recognising that “the current model of public service broadcasting is clearly no longer sustainable.”
However, on looking at the detail, the recommendations are conditional, with the caveat “If funding is available”. Government and broadcasters have been given an excuse to do nothing. Yet again children and their needs are in danger of being shuffled to back of the queue.
There needs to be a braver vision and more forward-thinking solution, before it is too late.
SKTV has proposed a new Public Service Content online and broadcast service for children that addresses market failure and responds to the innovative and creative ways that today’s children engage with media, embracing the best of the participative and interactive characteristics of the digital world.
At the core of the service would be on-demand (through mobile phones as well as broadband internet), high quality programming – a rich mix of dedicated British scripted and factual content, along with interactive games, competitions and social networking.
The service would allow kids to influence and participate, whether through suggesting storylines, commenting on commissioning plans, rating content or contributing their own. The service would be publicly owned and in receipt of public funds, and run with a view to generating profit that can be ploughed back into new services.
Governance for the service would ensure that it adhered to a strong set of core values:
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Strongly British in feel and tone
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Mandated to support the British production industry
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Non-exploitative in terms of commercial content or in its dealing with children.
The service would take on a different relationship with advertisers, focusing on corporate social responsibility-led sponsorship rather than just product advertising. It would be
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Strongly informed by the wishes, views and ideas of its audience
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Entertaining but with a greater purpose
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Striving to be innovative and breaking new ground in format, style and ways to involve its audience.
The service would also support the regeneration of the mainstream production market by forming relationships with commercial children’s TV channels or Ofcom’s newly proposed Second Public Service Provider, to:
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Co-develop broadcast spin-offs to new ideas developed on line
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Cross-promote content and services
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Jointly fund and broadcast the innovative new content.
These relationships could be arms-length or, potentially, develop into a close partnership where one or more broadcasters join forces with the new service, benefiting from the cross-promotion and commissioning leverage of their partners.
The UK can once again have a world-leading children’s production sector by being bold and creating a new institution that addresses failure both in the supply and distribution ends of the market.
“If funding is available…” One can only hope that Lord Stephen Carter, charged with setting forth the Government’s future approach to the converged communications and technology sectors (including Public Service Broadcasting) in The Digital Britain Review to be published later this year, will do more than Ofcom: not just recognise the importance of good children’s media but provide a real framework to support and protect it.
After all young people are often at the forefront of new technology, adopting its use long before their elders. It is not enough to ‘protect’ them by restricting what may be harmful – they need content that nurtures them, enhancing their general and cultural education, well being and connectedness. Save Kids’ TV will continue to lobby on their behalf.
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