Next - our discussions with the BBC Trust to ensure their review recommends strengthening the regulatory position, so that BBC must maintain and indeed extend children’s provision and recognise its fundamental importance in the public service mix.

SKTV has been represented at some key meetings in recent months:
At the June 12th launch of the International Broadcasting Trust report “Screening the World”. This was a major survey into UK broadcasters’ commitment to portraying international issues and inclusion of foreign reports or programming in their schedules. The chapter on coverage of world issues and other cultures in children’s programmes made salutary reading – with US-centric programming representing a huge tranche of their viewing time. But there were very few other references apart from in Blue Peter and Newsround. It provided a strong message of support for the Save Kids’ TV campaign’s stress on the importance of public serviced content which develops kids’ views not only of themselves but the wider world.

At a Voice of the Listener and Viewer event on June 24th with Culture Minister, Andy Burnham. When asked about the future of kids’ TV, Burnham made a lot of generally supportive remarks but did not answer the question as to whether the government might be minded to speed up the process of legislating to save kid’s PSB. SKTV has since written to follow-up with the Minister and our aim remains fast-tracking.

SKTV also attended the July 17th Ofcom debate on the future of public service content at the London Business School. Lord David Currie the Chairman of Ofcom and Professor Patrick Barwise spoke. Lord Currie stressed that there was only one chance to get PSB right and this was it. When questioned, Currie thought that the kids’ crisis was at the heart of the matter. There was some optimism about funding at the meeting as the speakers explored the possibility that the “digital dividend” (the additional money currently in the BBC licence fee to pay for digital switchover support) could be used to fund new public service models, with no additional strain on the Treasury.

What is clear from this and other meetings with Ofcom is that from the Autumn the decision rests in the Government’s hands – and that is where Save Kids’ TV’s next priorities must lie.

Finally – on the wider issue of children’s cultural provision - Anna Home will be representing Save Kids’ TV at the Action for Children’s Arts launch of their Manifesto for Children’s Culture on the 21st July, to be attended by key kids’ campaigners and politicians,. The event is designed to call for more “joined up thinking” in providing for children’s culture, and will provide an excellent opportunity for us to get across the message to politicians who watch little TV, that kids’ media content is as much a cultural force as museums, books and movies.

While unable to commit the Conservatives to any particular policy or any one of the proposed Ofcom models he was extremely supportive of the industry and SKTV’s position on UK kids’ right to hear their own voices and experience their own culture and clearly understood the issues. He suggested that although he was unable to support the concept of a tax credit at present he thought it worthwhile to explore the concept of tax credits within the creative industries in general – putting together similar requests from the Games and Music industries, with the PACT children’s Television proposal.

His speech can be read on the Showcomotion website. He was also brave enough to join a large number of delegates in the bar after his talk and at dinner in an extremely noisy Pizza Express!

Cary Bazalgette prepared our submission. Apart from its value as a response to the Buckingham process it’s an excellent statement of the fundamental principles underlying SKTV and puts children’s television firmly in the wider cultural context.

You can read it here.

The Review will be partly conducted through a public consultation to which the public can still contribute (until 15th August) http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/consult/open_consultations/childrens_services.html

SKTV felt that the questionnaire the Trust asks respondents to fill in, while useful retrospectively (i.e. are the programmes good, are they doing a good job?) does not enable the Campaign to get to the heart of the matter. We need to impress upon the Trust that the issues are about the BBC in the wider marketplace, the BBC’s attitude to children as part of its public service remit, commitments to sustain or indeed improve levels of provision and funding for children, how some age ranges are served better than others, how airtime can be eroded and how this might lead to dilution of funding, the effects of the lack of competition etc etc. The issues are broad, strategic and extremely pressing as the BBC is now the only substantial player.

At the Showcomotion Conference in early July the BBC Trust held a “listening” session and after that agreed to meet SKTV for a face to face discussion of these wider issues. The meeting will take place on the 1st of August.

Ofcom proposed four possible ways forward in the report and called for public responses to their ideas. Many commentators now believe that some sort of synthesis of the ideas is the most likely way forward and Save Kids’ TV’s response reflected that. We also wanted to act as a reminder that the children’s sector is already in collapse – it’s facing market failure earlier than the other genres – and something needs to be done right away.
You can download our detailed response to the questions Ofcom posed.

Our main concerns were the maintenance of plurality; the need for new methods of funding and the need for urgent action before the conclusion of the main PSB consultation which could drag on until well after the next election in 2010.

A summary of all responses has been issued by Ofcom and can be found at http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/condocs/psb2_1/responsesummary/

It is clear that there is much debate to come before the next phase from Ofcom which will be in September. The role of the BBC and the future of the Licence Fee are paramount. There is now talk of what’s being called “bottom slicing” rather than top slicing. This relates to the BBC’s offer to consider sharing certain areas of expenditure with competitors in the public service arena – e.g. indirect support to C4 to fund transmission; or utilisation of BBC Worldwide profits in some kind of deal with the commercial PSBs.

The BBC itself has broken ranks (compared to its usual position on plurality) by suggesting that under certain circumstances it might be better if the BBC were allowed to simply “go it alone” as the only public service provider. This is a position SKTV finds unacceptable. At the same time there is the radical Anthony Jay suggestion that the BBC should be reduced to one TV and one radio channel. Also not something which makes sense to us when the commercial alternatives to the BBC are unable to put up anything like the funding needed to replace the lost public service content.

If anyone has time to read it there is an interesting selection of essays on the complexity of the PSB issue - The Price of Plurality; Choice, Diversity and Broadcasting Institutions in the Digital Age edited by Tim Gardam and David A L Levy, published by Reuters Institute for The Study of Journalism.

SKTV is concerned that there is as much if not greater need for new/original output on the older channel CBBC and have written to Jana to raise the issue and to ask for clarification of levels of investment in the different age ranges.

It is good news that the pressure from all sides is having an effect, albeit relatively small, on the Broadcasters.

If by any chance you’ve missed it you can find it at www.britishkidstv.com

Remember it’s viral, so spread the word by sending it to your friends!

Ofcom accepts that there is a crisis in kids‘ TV and that a new scenario and new funding is needed, but it sees this as the problem for all PSB programming and proposes that any solutions found should cover all genres.

Four models are put forward for discussion

1.Evolution

In this scenario the BBC, Channel4, ITV1/GMTV and potentially Five would all retain public service roles,along with S4C and GMS. The BBC would continue to be funded by the Licence Fee and Channel 4 and ITV1 would have revised PSB remits, potentially funded by enhanced indirect funding. Competition in the allocation of resources would only come via the periodic licence renewal

2.BBC only

In this model the BBC would be the only UK-wide institutional intervention in PSB and the only publicly owned UK-wide distributor of public service content. Plurality would be delivered by commercial,public and community organisations operating on various platforms. The BBC would take on an enhanced role (potentially with increased funding) to deliver programming needs currently met by other institutions that the market will not provide in the future

3.BBC/C4 plus competitive funding

Under this model the BBC, Channel4, S4C and GMS would retain their roles as publicly owned public service institutions with remits to maximise reach and impact across platforms. Channel4 would take on an enhanced role on older children’s content provision to ensure plurality. The ITV1 and Five licences would become purely commercial

Other providers which are already reaching the children’s audience could be funded through competition for funding to deliver UK children’s content.

In this model other broadcasters would also be able to compete for long term but transferable funding to provide public service content…..

4.Broad competitive funding

In this approach the BBC would be the only institutional provider of public service content for children. All other services would be provided through long term but transferable funding and providers would tender periodically for both production and distribution contracts. (This is similar to the Teachers TV model)

The pros and cons of these models are set out in the document.

Some short term proposals specific to kid’s TV are also discussed.

Tax incentives: Ofcom say that although these are worth investigating they are outside their remit and a matter for government.

Ofcom also suggests that the BBC could do more and urges the BBC Trust to clarify the overall level of investment in kids‘ content; look at widening the output for older kids post 7pm, and increase the amount of drama and factual for this age group and young teens.

The channel 4 pilot and declared interest in older kid’s programming is welcomed.

Ofcom believes that S4C should play a greater role in the provision of programming for non-Welsh audiences through creating incentives for re-versioning or double shooting.

Ofcom intends to continue discussions in these areas.

It is clear that Ofcom has taken the kids‘ issue very seriously and SKTV will take time to consider the options carefully and respond. (The closing date for responses is 19th June).

However the main issue is the timing . After the 19th June Ofcom will consider the responses and will publish a further consultation in the autumn, this will include specific proposals on options for kids‘ TV. However Ofcom can only recommend - it is for the Government to legislate. According to Ofcom’s own timetable, legislation is unlikely to happen before 2011, and a general election could scupper the whole process!

Children’s TV can’t afford to wait so long and we need to intensify the pressure on government to recognise the seriousness of the situation.

SKTV will be considering it’s strategy over the next few weeks and it would be good to hear your opinions. Please find time to read the proposals and let us have your thoughts.

The viral, created by Clikflik and featuring the voices of Bernard Cribbins, Wayne Forester and Emma Tate, can be viewed by visiting British kids’ TV where you can also sign the petition.

Westminster University’s CAMRI Research Centre and CBBC are staging a one day conference on children and virtual worlds – the online phenomenon capturing so many younger users in the last few years. From Club Penguin to World of Warcraft, kids are immersed in these multi-player experiences and this conference this conference will offer demonstrations, discussion and research on this new form of media for children.

The conference will run from 10.00am - 5.30pm at the University of Westminster 35 Marylebone Road, London, NW1 5LS. You can register at www.ChildrenInVirtualWorlds.org.uk

Last year the University of Westminster carried out a research project for Save Kids’ TV collating the body of research which looks at the positive effects of children’s television on the young people who watch. We are pleased to be able to support this conference which should further extend understanding of kids’ media practice and their need for security and support in these online worlds.