Media Industry weekly, Broadcast Magazine are today (21/11) reporting that ITV is planning a return to the regultor, Ofcom, with a request to cut its children’s hours from the current 8 hours per week to 5 hours. This would allow CITV to run a one-hour per day schedule on ITV1 on weekdays at the very most. The article suggests that even if rejected the Broadcaster will only schedue one hour per day maximum and make up the remainder at weekends and during holidays.
Broadcast goes on to state: ITV denied it was planning to cut back to five hours a week, but would not comment on the changes it is discussing with Ofcom. But a source close to the process said: “Ofcom only turned ITV down on the basis that eight to two hours was a significant change. If they had asked for five hours in the first place instead of two it could have been accepted.”
While the proposed reductions in hours are still a threat to kids’ content, the real problem is that ITV has stopped spending on children’s programming, having commissioned nothing since December 2005. Ofcom say that they don’t have the power to force ITV to spend on kids - or indeed to schedule their regulated hours at times reasonable for children to watch. All the more reason for people who care about their kids’ viewing to spread the word that a campaign is under way to ensure that British kids stop getting short changed by regulators, politicians and all of those who say “they never had it so good” - and continue to have access to a wide variety of great children’s TV made here in the UK.
