I thought it would be a good idea to open this latest newsletter with a quick overview of recent events. And there’s more information at the end of the newsletter, if you would like to read on. Thanks.
On the 25th of April Bafta and the Department of Culture, Media and Sport co-hosted a Children’s Summit to discuss the crisis in the industry. The Broadcasting Minister Shaun Woodward was there with members of his civil service team. Also invited were Michael Grade (ITV), Jana Bennett (BBC), and John McVay (PACT), along with producers from the games industry and a cross-section of children’s TV producers and broadcasters. Unfortunately it turned out to be a deeply depressing meeting. There was absolutely no sign of any concrete proposals or a shifting of position on the government side. It also became clear ITV has absolutely no intention of returning to children’s production.
The fall out from that meeting has been mixed. To begin with we had positive comments as Shaun Woodward welcomed Ofcom’s decision to review children’s television and take a look at future sources of funding. (read more). At the same time a cross-party group of MP’s have put down an Early Day Motion (EDM) to draw attention to the crisis in the industry. The EDM is used by backbenchers to draw attention to important issues and there is a copy of the text of the children’s media EDM at the end of this newsletter, with a list of MP’s who have signed up. If you don’t see your MP’s name as a signatory please write to them to get their support.
More recently Shaun Woodward has warned against over stating the problems facing children’s television and has gone out of his way to praise Michael Grade’s leadership of ITV, which is less encouraging.
SKTV’s response to these developments has been to re-focus our efforts on the longer-term future for the industry, alongside our campaign for more immediate solutions. We believe it is essential there is a new model to create, finance and distribute quality PSB content outside the BBC. We hope to have concrete proposals for discussion at Showcomotion in Sheffield.
Anna Home announced this shift in emphasis at the recent VLV Conference on children’s media. She told the audience we were looking at the feasibility of a new multi-platform proposition for children, which will be an alternative destination to the BBC. It will be a completely new way of providing funding, content and distribution, exploring the possibilities of private/public partnerships and ethical advertising. SKTV has secured funding to research the market and produce a feasibility study and business plan.
Also from the VLV conference, Anne Wood suggested there might be a role
for a children’s media foundation and there was an interesting presentation from Ofcom, updating the audience on their current research and thinking. I’ve included the full text of the Ofcom presentation at the end, but here are some of the salient facts;
97% of 8-11 year olds and 94% of 12 - 15 year olds regularly use television, way ahead of gaming, DVDs and the internet.
As well as being the medium which children use most, television is also the most important medium for children, with 43% of 8-11 year olds saying they would miss it the most - almost double the figure for games and seven times that of the internet.
Despite the importance of television in children’s lives, they still watch significantly less television than adults. In 2006, children watched 15 and a half hours of television per week overall, compared to over 25 hours for adults. As well as watching less TV than adults, children’s viewing is also declining over time, falling from 16.7 hours per week in 2002 to 15.5 hours in 2006.
But it’s viewing to adult programmes that is in decline. Children aren’t watching less children’s programmes. The proportion of children’s viewing to children’s programmes grew between 2002 and 2006, from 27% of total viewing to 30%.
Within this context, children are shifting their viewing habits away from the traditional children’s programmes on BBC One, BBC Two and ITV - to dedicated children’s channels available on Freeview, cable and satellite.
82% of children’s viewing in 2006 was to dedicated children’s channels such as CBBC, CBeebies, Nickelodeon and Disney - increasing from 55% in 2002.
(read more)
And finally, SKTV volunteers continue to work hard on the campaign.
Greg Childs has had some early morning calls to argue our case on breakfast television news, countering some of the nonsense circulating the media as a result of Aric Sigman’s one-man crusade to rid our homes of television for ever.
Robin Lyons at Calon is producing a short animation in support of the SKTV message, which we want to run as a web viral campaign. Jayne Kirkham and Colin Ward are working on an idea for a blog written by a fictitious new children’s character heading to London in search of a job, only to find all the children’s slots have been given over to programmes for adults. And we’ve had an offer of help on these and other web campaigns from Juliet Tzabar and the Scream Out Loud team. Watch this space for developments.
SKTV continues to work hard to get across our core message; ‘Children deserve the best television’. But the short-term solutions we all hoped for are proving elusive and it looks like we are in for the long haul. And please remember we are still operating with very little resources, so if anyone feels able to make a financial contribution there are now details on how you can do that on our updated website www.savekidstv.org.uk.
Thank you.
Bafta and the Department of Culture, Media and Sport co-hosted a Children’s Summit.
Editor’s note: This report was written under the Chatham House rules.
A number of people were invited to a summit to discuss the crisis in children’s television. There were representatives from the government, Ofcom, research, action groups, producers, broadcasters and related industries.
Several speakers outlined the crisis in the children’s production sector. An industry, which has been highly successful for over 30 years, contributing 15% of all programme exports (second only after film and drama), is now imploding.
At the same time it was recognised that there seems to be incredible choice for children in the UK with so many dedicated children’s channels. There was intense discussion about the value of UK originated content for kids with research presented which suggested that the overwhelming majority of parents value UK originations extremely highly.
There was a comparison with UK based video games industry, which operates globally and needs international partners in a number of countries for a game to be successful.
Short term and long term solutions to the crisis were discussed. There was a clear indication that ITV will not be investing in UK originations in the foreseeable future.
Longer-term solutions included adopting overseas funding models such as the tax breaks operating in Canada, France and Australia. A new PSB channel was also raised as a possible way forward.
The importance of the Ofcom review of Children’s provision became the overwhelming theme to emerge from the debate with several people in key positions asking for more information on:
a) the role of TV in children’s media consumption
b) the value of UK originated content from both a child’s perspective and their parent’s.
Under the Communications Act, Children’s programming is counted as ‘tier 3’ provision which means that Ofcom can offer guidelines to broadcasters but they do not directly regulate their output. Broadcasters are expected to self-regulate. It was questioned whether children’s content shouldn’t be in the obligatory category given the unique importance of children’s culture in society as a whole.
The BBC was extremely supportive of the provision of UK originated content for kids but its value was questioned very strongly by some other participants.
Amongst the opinions expressed were:
Content is simply the platform for the sale of toys and other merchandise.
The production sector is simply protecting its own business
Kids don’t care where their content comes from as long as it is good.
Kids production is economic insanity for a commercial broadcaster.
There is no objective analysis of the sector available at present.
From a Save Kids’ TV Perspective it was a salutary reminder of how clear and informed our message needs to be in the coming months.
Shaun Woodward welcomes Ofcom’s decision to review children’s television
Ofcom is under pressure to intervene to protect original children’s TV programmes. MPs of all parties have called on Ofcom to respond to mounting concern that the ban on advertising junk food around children’s TV is forcing commercial broadcasters to make fewer children’s programmes.
A cross party group of ten MPs, including former broadcasting minister and Labour MP Janet Anderson, have tabled a commons motion calling on Ofcom to force broadcasters to show “an appropriate range of homegrown children’s programmes”.
Shaun Woodward has welcomed Ofcom’s decision to review children’s TV, which would include examining the sources for future funding. He said: “The government recognises the changing broadcasting environment presents challenges to the ability of commercial public service broadcasters to sustain their programming for children. We welcome Ofcom’s review into children’s television, due to be published this autumn, which will include the current state of the children’s TV market and the sources of future funding for children’s programming.”
The BBC is also looking for savings after a disappointing licence fee settlement. Mark Thomspon told the cross party media committee that sharing the licence fee with other broadcasters would endanger children’s programming. He said: “There are some really quite serious concerns about how much original children’s commissioning and production there will be beyond the BBC.”
Early Day Motion to draw attention to the crisis in the industry.
Neil Gerrard MP
That this House recognises that children’s television production provides significant public value; appreciates the importance of high quality British television programmes for children in developing their sense of identity; acknowledges that appropriate children’s television can improve attention, language, comprehension and vocabulary of children; notes that parents also consider high quality programming as a factor in improving general knowledge, literacy and attention; believes that plurality of provision by more than one broadcaster is essential in ensuring quality; is concerned that the main advertiser-funded public service broadcasters are seeking to reduce the commissioning of children’s programming; understands the financial constraints on these broadcasters and the BBC following a lower than expected licence fee settlement; but further notes that children’s and animation programmes generate a total turnover of three times their initial investment; supports the requirements in the Communications Act 2003 for broadcasters to show an appropriate range of home-grown children’s programmes; and calls upon Ofcom to ensure that this obligation is met.
VLV Conference
“Good morning, and I’d just like to say thank you for inviting me to speak at the Voice of the Listener and Viewer Conference on the role of media in contemporary childhood.
Over the next few minutes I would like to share with you some of the broad themes emerging from our new research. This is the first time we have been able to share some of this data.
I’m going to concentrate on where television fits into children’s media consumption habits, how their viewing is changing and what this means for the traditional role of public service broadcasting. Then I would like to spend a few moments to clarify Ofcom’s role in this area, and finally I will talk about the scope and content of our review, which we aim to complete later this year.
Children’s television arouses enormous passions in this country - witness a recent article from a very distinguished media journalist!
Many people believe that children’s television is currently in crisis.
What is not disputable is that children’s television is undergoing a process of profound change, and I hope to be able to explain some of the components of this change over the next few slides.
Today, there are clearly many media platforms competing for children’s attention.
However, even in this digital world, television remains the dominant medium. Our recent audit of media literacy shows that 97% of 8-11 year olds and 94% of 12 - 15 year olds regularly use television, way ahead of gaming, DVDs and the internet.
As well as being the medium which children use most, television is also the most important medium for children, with 43% of 8-11 year olds saying they would miss it the most - almost double the figure for games and seven times that of the internet.
As children get older, mobile phones become more important, but even amongst 12-15 year olds television remains the most important medium.
First of all, where are they watching?
Around three quarters of all children say they have a TV in their bedroom
Boys are most likely to have a TV than girls, and older children more likely than younger children.
Who are they watching with?
Around two thirds of children regularly watch television either alone or with other children. As you might expect, when children are younger, they are more likely to watch with a grown up but as they get older they watch more on their own.
How much are they watching?
Perhaps surprisingly, despite the importance of television in children’s lives, they still watch significantly less television than adults.
This is not a new trend - it reflects the limited amount of time children physically have to watch TV in the context of all their other activities.
In 2006, children watched 15 and a half hours of television per week overall, compared to over 25 hours for adults.
As well as watching less TV than adults, children’s viewing is also declining over time, falling from 16.7 hours per week in 2002 to 15.5 hours in 2006.
The internet is clearly an influencing factor here. We also know that 12-14 year olds spend about 12 hours per week on the internet, but for 8-11 year olds it is around 7 hours.
What are they watching?
So children are watching less TV - but what are they watching?
It’s a fact that over 70% of children’s viewing is to adult programmes.
But it’s viewing to adult programmes that is in decline. Children aren’t watching less children’s programmes. The proportion of children’s viewing to children’s programmes grew between 2002 and 2006, from 27% of total viewing to 30%.
Within this context, children are shifting their viewing habits away from the traditional children’s programmes on BBC One, BBC Two and ITV - to dedicated children’s channels available on Freeview, cable and satellite.
82% of children’s viewing in 2006 was to dedicated children’s channels such as CBBC, CBeebies, Nickelodeon and Disney - increasing from 55% in 2002.
Conversely, the mainstream channels accounted for only 18% of viewing in 2006.
Let’s just dwell for a moment on the reasons for these changes in viewing trends.
Reasons for change in viewing trends
Nearly two thirds of children are able to receive cable and satellite, with a further 24% able to receive channels such as CBBC and CBeebies on Freeview (91% overall).
And children are far more likely to have access to digital multi-channels than adults as a whole.
We also need to remember that the number of children’s channels available has grown.
There are now over 25 channels offering children’s programmes, of which 20 are dedicated children’s channels.
And it’s not just channels like Disney, Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon. The main public service broadcasters have also diversified into multichannel programming for children.
The BBC provides BBC and CBeebies, ITV provides CITV and Five has a branded block of children’s programmes on its digital channel Five Life.
It is also a fact that there is more choice of content available at the times children want to watch.
Most children’s viewing is actually in adult airtime, with the most popular period being between 6 O’ Clock and 9 O’ Clock in the evening. Viewing at this time is higher in multi-channel households than in those only able to receive analogue signals as the chart shows.
Many of the dedicated children’s channels are available to watch at peak viewing times.
Interestingly, none of the public service channels are available after 7pm.
Fragmentation of viewing
As a result of the sheer choice of channels available, viewing has fragmented. It is no longer the case that a single channel could attract up to 50% market share.
In multi-channel homes, we have already seen that the five terrestrial channels account for just 18% of viewing. This has had a significant impact on the business model for children’s programming.
However the remaining 82% is split between over 20 channels, with no single channel achieving a significant market share.
What does this mean for the Public Service Broadcasters?
The PSB channels are, BBC One, BBC Two, ITV1, Channel 4, Five and the two BBC digital children’s channels; CBeebies and CBBC.
Together, these channels are expected to contribute to a range of high quality, original programmes for children and young people, and historically the PSBs have provided significantly more drama and factual programmes than the commercial multi-channels.
The output of PSB broadcasters is defined by a set of purposes and characteristics which Ofcom first put forward in our review of PSB in 2004.
We proposed four purposes of PSB:
Informing our understanding of the world
Stimulating Knowledge and learning
Reflecting the UK’s cultural identity
And representing diversity and alternative viewpoints.
We also recommended six characteristics of PSB:
High quality
Original
Innovative
Challenging
Engaging, and
Widely available
These purposes and characteristics are the main way we assess how well PSB is being delivered overall and they apply in particular to children’s programming.
How have the PSBs been performing?
As we saw earlier, the share of viewing taken by the terrestrial PSB channels has fallen to just 18% of the total.
But when we include CBBC and CBeebies, this increases to just under 40% of viewing - so the PSBs still command a large share of viewing, albeit dominated by the BBC.
And the PSB channels still deliver programmes which children want to watch.
In multichannel homes in 2006, 17 out of the top 20 programmes broadcast that year were from the PSBs, with 14 being from the BBC.
So what has been happening to the volume of programming on the PSB channels?
As I said earlier there has been a massive increase in the availability of children’s programming and this also applies to the PSB’s channels. Between 1998 and 2006 the hours of children’s programming on PSB channels tripled. This was mainly down to the launch of the BBC’s digital children’s channels, CBBC and CBeebies.
Looking more closely at the figures, however, it is clear that programme repeats have accounted for a significant proportion of this increase in hours broadcast.
The number of repeats on the PSB channels as a proportion of total output increased six-fold between 1998 and 2006.
At the same time, the number of hours of first-run, original programmes has remained relatively stable.
The increase in original programming commissioned by the BBC’s children’s channels has been balanced by a reduction in new programmes by BBC One and ITV1.
We are aware that many of the dedicated children’s channels commission and produce original UK content - we hope to be able to report on the extent of this in our review.
Spend on UK originations
We’ve seen that hours of first run UK original programming has been more or less stable.
However, spend on original programming has fallen - from £110 million per year in 1998 to just under £90 million in 2006. This represents a decline of one fifth in actual terms but nearer to one third in real terms.
The BBC are the only broadcaster to have increased spend over this period.
Consequently, the cost per hour of first run originations by the PSBs has fallen from £85,000 per hour in 1998 to £56,000 per hour in 2006, a reduction of one third in actual terms, or around half in real terms.
This indicates that the quality of new programmes being broadcast might have fallen significantly.
What parents do think about the programmes their children are watching
As part of our PSB Annual Report published in March 2007 we commissioned research into parent’s views of how the PSB channels performed against the purposes and characteristics of PSB.
The results were emphatic.
Parents overwhelmingly recognised the importance of the PSB purposes and characteristics to children’s programming.
80% felt it was important that children’s programmes should help children learn and develop.
76% felt it was important that programmes were well made and of a high quality
75% felt that children’s programmes should help children understand what is going on in the world
And nearly two thirds of parents felt that there should be enough programmes made in the UK for their children to watch. When parents were asked how well these PSB purposes and characteristics were being delivered, the results are revealing.
In general, over half of parents felt that PSB channels were delivering well-made, high quality programming.
The BBC channels scored highest here, but ITV1 and Five also garnered approval from around half of respondents.
However, when it came to delivery of programmes which help children to learn and develop, the scores were less emphatic, with only CBeebies and CBBC gaining approval of 7 in 10 parents. And in terms of delivering programmes made in the UK, the results were once again inconsistent, with fewer than half believing this purpose was being delivered well overall.
So what does all this evidence show us?
It shows that television is still the most important medium for children - but there are increasingly other media competing for their attention.
However, children’s viewing is migrating from the traditional PSB channels to specialist channels on digital platforms.
In spite of all this, PSB programming is still important for parents and children. But the traditional model for delivering PSB children’s programmes is in flux.
As viewing fragments, investment in PSB programming is declining. This has been shown most recently in ITV’s decision to scale back its commitments to children’s programming.
At this point I would like to talk about Ofcom’s role and duties in relation to children’s television.
The 2003 Communications Act requires broadcasters to monitor their own performance in relation to providing PSB programming which falls under the so called tier 3 genres (which includes genres such as religious programmes, arts, education and science).
What is the regulatory context?
Being in tier 3 means that Ofcom has no powers to ensure a set number of hours broadcast.
Broadcasters are required to consult Ofcom about any significant changes they may wish to make to their service, and take account of any guidance given by Ofcom.
This effectively means that the PSB broadcasters themselves must decide how best to deliver children’s programming.
However, Ofcom does have a duty to assess whether there is a sufficient contribution, across all PSB channels, to a suitable range of high quality and original programmes for children and young people as a whole.
So our first job is to do just that - not to look at whether what individual channels are doing is enough, but to assess delivery across the market as a whole.
And that’s why we have launched our review of children’s programming. I’ve already shared some of the preliminary research in our review.
Review of children’s programming
This will be one of the most thorough and comprehensive reviews of children’s television in recent years. In scoping the review, we have sought the opinions of a range of stakeholders including the Voice of the Listener and Viewer which has provided helpful guidance as we determined our programme of research.
The review aims to address a number of key questions. The core questions are:
* What is the state of children’s media in the UK and the role of television within this?
* What are the prospects for the future delivery of a wide range of high quality and original content for children, and
* What are the regulatory and legislative options for securing this in the future?
In researching children we intend to focus on three distinct age groups; the under 6s (pre-school), the 7-12s (primary school) and the 13 to 15 year olds.
In doing this we may conclude that different approaches are needed for different age groups.
* In trying to answer these questions we are undertaking a thorough programme of research and analysis, including:
* An audit of consumption and output data over the past 10 years
* Deliberative research amongst parents and children covering attitudes towards children’s television and what they value most as consumers and citizens.
* A programme of stakeholder interviews - so far we have met with well over 50 key people in the industry.
* A review of the academic literature around children’s television.
* A comprehensive study of the economics of production and commissioning
* A review of international markets and regulatory practice, to assess the effectiveness of different forms of intervention.
In terms of outcomes, first we need to assess objectively where the problem lies. Today I have shared with you some of our very early analysis, but there is much more work being done. Then we need to ask ourselves two questions.
The first question is whether the BBC, together with other commercial providers, is enough to guarantee the future provision of high quality, UK originated children’s programming?
If we do not believe that this is the case, then we need to consider what forms of public intervention might be appropriate to secure this in the future.
Timing
We propose to publish our findings in three phases:
First, a report on the results of our evidence gathering, which we hope to publish later on this Summer
Second, following the research report, we will assess possible policy options and seek feedback later on in the Autumn.
And finally, incorporating our recommendations into the next Ofcom PSB review which will kick off later this year.
Ofcom’s review of children’s programming will not offer any short term fixes. But we hope it will be a conduit for a serious debate on the future of children’s television in the UK and how best to ensure that UK children continue to receive a wide range of high quality and original programming.”
