As part of its campaign to save British kids’ TV, Pact has released a viral film starring much-loved characters The Wombles. The hilarious sketch, featuring the Bad Ass Wombles is set in Central Park, New York and aims to highlight the effects of US imports on our children’s programming.
The Ofcom review of the future of children’s television has made it starkly clear that production of children’s programmes made in the UK about the lives and concerns of British kids is in dramatic decline. The shocking statistic is that of all the programmes shown on the many channels for children in this country only 1% are new programmes made in the UK! With the BBC cutting back, ITV commissioning few new programmes and reducing its hours of children’s time on ITV1, Channel 4 out of the market for younger kids content, and Five scaling back its programmes to cater only for pre-school children, there is very little programming being commissioned from producers in the UK who were renowned as some of the best in the world.
Save Kids’ TV has been working on a comprehensive plan to secure the future of quality media for kids in the UK. Our submission to Ofcom proposes a new organisation which will provide not only great home-produced programmes for children, but deliver that content as an on-demand service, wrapped up in an attractive multimedia interactive package online, where kids can get together to watch, play, learn and share their opinions and their own creative work with their friends.
Kids need their own view of the wider world. It’s not only their right, it’s also our duty to help them become engaged citizens. Throughout 2008, Save Kids’ TV will contribute to the public debate stimulated by the Government’s latest plans for childhood and Ofcom’s further review of Public Service Broadcasting – to ensure that kids’ cultural entitlement is firmly on the agenda. They deserve a media diet as stimulating as previous generations enjoyed!
We need your help to pursue this goal, to alert parents and politicians to the importance of a rich media landscape, dedicated to our kids’ needs – and to achieve diversity of content and plurality of supply.
Visit our action page and find out what you can do, and sign up for our newsletter to register your support. For more on what Save Kids’ TV has been doing in this vital campaign see our Annual Review.
A diminished BBC is not enough. Our kids deserve better.
Philip Pullman, patron of Save Kids’ TV
“Children need the best of everything, and that includes the best of television – not the cheapest. Save Kids’ TV is working to make sure they get it.”
