The BBC trust is reviewing the whole of the children’s output; TV; Radio and online. It’s the first of their genre reviews and once again it’’s a triumph for the Campaign that they have realised that the health of BBC Children’s defines in no small part the security of the whole industry and hugely influences how the children’s audience is served.
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.
