This is a quick outline of the key events which have been on SKTV’s radar since December 2007. The report on the Annual General Meeting is listed under October ‘08 below.
January ‘08:
SKTV took on their first professional PR representative – Liz Morris. This immediately streamlined our approaches to and response to the press and media outlets. A number of newspaper articles, features, radio and television appearances have been the result over the last 9 months.
BBC DG Mark Thompson and Jana Bennett, Director of BBC Vision responded to Anna Home’s letter of the previous year. Their response suggested they were not fully aware of the seriousness of the crisis facing children’s media in the UK. SKTV wrote to the Chair of the BBC Trust to follow up this exchange.
SKTV discovered that the Department for Children, Schools and Families Review of Childhood took almost no account of children and television, other than reflections on advertising. Communicating the issues to Ed Balls, the Minister at the DCSF, became a priority.
SKTV successfully sent an awareness-raising e-mail to 7,000 schools through the help of Katy Jones at Childseye Media in Manchester.
February ‘08:
Save Kids’ TV met Ofcom’s James Thickett to discuss the Children’s Television Review process. We were given advance knowledge of the timetable of events to help us prepare for the next stage of consultation. While it became apparent that the issues brought up in the previous year by SKTV and our campaign partners had galvanised Ofcom into an early review of public service content for children, it now became clear that there was a danger their definitive review outcome might now be lost in the broader review of Public Service which was to follow.
The BBC’s announcement that it had cancelled Grange Hill masked another worrying piece of news: from Monday 11th February BBC 1 reduced its commitment to children’s programmes, pushing back the CBBC schedule by 20 minutes per day in order to make room for The Weakest Link. SKTV included comment on this in subsequent representations to the BBC Trust.
March ‘08:
SKTV received donations in March ’08 which helped cover administration and PR costs and created a small reserve. Our thanks go to RDF Media, the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) and members of the SKTV Executive Committee.
SKTV joined the NCVO - an umbrella body for voluntary organisations, giving free access to basic legal advice, and discounts for equipment, software and meeting room hire.
SKTV were invited to a private briefing at Channel 4 in advance of the launch of their “Next on 4” proposals. On March 13th, C4 revealed their thinking after a nine-month examination of their public service purposes as an alternative to the BBC. The Channel 4 Board come down strongly against privatisation and launched their plan for a pilot £10m children’s fund, to stimulate production of programmes for 10 – 12 year olds, along with a larger plan (the 4IP fund) to stimulate multi-media production. SKTV issued a press statement acknowledging Channel 4’s contribution to the future of children’s programming. Channel 4’s role in public service broadcasting has become one of the central areas of exploration in the Ofcom review of PSB.
SKTV rebutted ITV publicity which suggested they were getting back into kids’ commissioning, pointing out that the budgets were hugely reduced from the £35 million peer annum spent only a few years ago, and that the few programmes concerned were not fully-funded.
The Early Day Motion tabled in the House of Commons in December 2008 by Janet Anderson MP, began to gain ground after a PACT letter-writing campaign also supported by Save Kids’ TV. The motion states:“That this House welcomes the recent reports from the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee and media regulator Ofcom which identify a threat to public service broadcasting for children; believes that public service television for children plays a hugely important role in contributing to the educational and cultural development of children; and therefore calls on the Government to ensure that UK children of all ages, races and faiths have a genuine choice of high quality, UK-made children’s programmes that reflect the diversity of UK culture and children’s lives in 2007, and are available on a choice of channels.” There were 86 signatories by mid-March 08.
April ‘08:
On April 10th Ofcom announced their thinking after the first phase of the Public Service Review. Children’s was included but as suspected was not a prominent feature of the overall report. This launched a second phase of consultation.
PACT launched a campaign video featuring the “Badass Wombles of Wimbledon Common”, playing on the potential Americanisation of our children’s output. SKTV was able to assist with publicity and feature the video on our homepage. It was very effective in creating a PR buzz around the campaign.
TV psychologist Dr Tanya Byron revealed the results of her Government-commissioned review of games and internet activity amongst kids’ games. SKTV were well represented at an industry event at BAFTA which discussed the review with Dr Byron, and used the opportunity to lobby senior civil servants on the wider issues of children’s media provision.
May ’08:
SKTV engaged in preparing response to the Ofcom PSB consultation.
June ‘08:
On June 10th SKTV met Ofcom to offer final thoughts prior to the closing of the consultation on PSB launched in April, and to hear the timetable for the nest phase in the process. On the 20th June SKTV submitted its response to the consultation on the Phase One Review.
The June 12th launch of the International Broadcasting Trust report “Screening the World” - a major survey into UK broadcasters’ commitment to portraying international issues - 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. IBT is a partner in the campaign.
At a Voice of the Listener and Viewer event on June 24th Culture Minister, Andy Burnham, made 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 wrote to the Minister to follow-up fast-tracking.
July ‘08:
SKTV was able to use the Showcomotion Children’s Media Conference to good effect and was represented in several sessions, which gained industry press coverage. The Save Kids’ Campaign was born at Showcomotion in the summer of 2006 and still provides a valuable forum to discuss the crisis. Ed Vaizey MP, Conservative Shadow Minister for Culture, was questioned on the kids’ TV crisis during his keynote address. Vaizey was difficult to pin down but expressed interest in the concept of tax-breaks for all the creative industries. Exec Committee member Adrian Mills hosted a “listening session” with representatives of the BBC Trust as part of their review of Children’s services, Save Kids’ TV were represented on panels in the opening session of the conference and in the political session, when BBC Children’s Controller Richard Deverell and representatives of S4C, Channel 4 and Ofcom also fielded questions.
SKTV attended the July 17th Ofcom debate on the future of public service content at the London Business School. Lord David Currie, Chairman of Ofcom, stressed that there was only one chance to get PSB right and this was it. When questioned by SKTV, 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.
Cary Bazalgette prepared our submission to the Government enquiry into the commercial impacts on children’s well-being conducted by Professor David Buckingham. The SKTV response was an excellent statement of the fundamental principles underlying SKTV and put children’s television firmly in the wider cultural context.
Anna Home represented Save Kids’ TV at the Action for Children’s Arts launch of their Manifesto for Children’s Culture on the 21st July which was attended by key kids’ campaigners and politicians. The event called for more “joined up thinking” in providing for children’s culture, and provided an 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.
August ‘08:
It was a triumph for the Campaign that the BBC Trust chose children’s services as their first genre review. On the 1st August SKTV met the Trust to feed into their consultation. We impressed upon the Trust that they needed to consider the BBC in the context of the wider marketplace, the BBC’s underlying 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, and the effects of the lack of competition. The issues are broad, strategic and extremely pressing as the BBC is now the only substantial player in the children’s sector. The Trust consultation closed on August 15th and the y will report before the end of the year. This was a major piece of evidenced-based work contributed to by the SKTV Executive Committee and industry advisors – for which we are very grateful.
September ‘08:
Ofcom delivered their Phase 2 PSB report on September 25th. In many ways it was immediately disappointing as the children’s references were minimal, and there was still no sense of urgency on the children’s crisis. This report outlines a refined view of the possible future of PSB. The timetable of events is clear, with Ofcom closing this final consultation on December 4th, and making recommendations to the Government in January. Since the report, the Culture Secretary Andy Burnham has said that the Government would announce its reactions and implementation strategy early in the year. Save Kids’ TV is concerned that this will remain a drawn out process when action is needed urgently – especially in the kids’ sector, but Burnham has said in public: “I think it is right that we should be stepping up the pace in the interests of viewers and the whole of the television industry” and there is some thought that the changes needed may not require a full-scale Broadcasting Act which would probably not find the Parliamentary time between now and the next election.
SKTV are undertaking a major piece of work to ensure that our final response captures the need for urgency, for funding and for an outlet for any alternative public service content for kids.
Estelle Hughes left the Save Kids’ TV Executive Committee, and two new members were co-opted – Katy Jones and Anthony Utley. Both have been enthusiastic members of the campaign Working Group. Both are based in the North West.
October ‘08:
On October 3rd the PACT petition on the Downing Street website closed after one year with 5253 signatures.
The Federation of Entertainment Unions held a lobbying event at the House of Commons on the 21st October, with key politicians and personalities concerned about the future of PSB. It is a mark of the co-operation which now exists across the campaign that although the general PSB issue is winning much of the publicity, questions about children’s provision contributed by SKTV representatives featured in the discussions.
The Save Kids’ TV Annual General Meeting was held on October 28th. It provided an opportunity for SKTV supporters and representatives of the many partner organisations which are also pursuing the campaign, to meet, discuss strategy for the future (especially in light of the final Ofcom consultation which closes on the 4th December) and consider tactics.
Anna Home opened the meeting by welcoming the wide range of participants. She explored the alternatives offered in the Ofcom second PSB review document which were now up for response before the 4th December. The meeting discussed the BBC’s position on Children’s programmes, how much detail to include in the response to Ofcom and the extent to which Contestable Funding was essential to ensure plurality of supply. Tax breaks, and the need to back them up with some sort of guarantee of a distribution platform for programmes which might benefit from them, were also discussed. There were warnings that Channel 4’s position as a funder of new programmes for the over 10’s was looking precarious with their current budget cuts. PACT and the Writers’ Guild reported on their recent meetings with the Secretary of State for Culture, Andy Burnham where he had shown interest in the children’s content provision issue. Everyone at the meeting was concerned at the lack of urgency and hoped that the government would bring their review to a conclusion as quickly as possible and take action next year.
The meeting also heard Vicky Ireland from Action for Children’s Arts describe the lobbying campaign they are using to build political awareness of the need of joined up thinking in provision of arts and culture for children.
November ‘08
Save Kids’ TV was well represented at the annual VLV Children’s Broadcasting Conference on the 5th November. SKTV Chair Anna Home and Exec Committee member Nigel Pickard used the platform to explore the campaign’s latest thinking on the way to solve the crisis in the industry and facing the UK kids audience. Senior politicians from the three main parties were there and all expressed broad support – though the consensus amongst them seemed to be that tax-breaks were more palatable than contestable funding to create a new commissioning body. There were also senior representatives from BBC Children’s, Five, Channel 4 and S4C to hear the campaign’s concerns and offer an update – such as the assurance from Channel 4 that the £10 million children’s fund (for programming for over 10’s) had not been reduced, but had been phased over a longer time period. More detailed notes on the discussions at the AGM are available on request from the Secretary admin@savekidstv.org.uk
November will see intensive work by the SKTV Committee to draft a full and definitive proposition to Ofcom about the need for funding, and the way in which that could be used to stimulate not only the production of programming, but to ensure online and broadcasting outlets for that content. There is also now a need to step up political lobbying as the question moves from Ofcom to politicians and the Government.
December ‘08
Date for final Ofcom submission – 4th December
