Kids producers turn to crowdfunding for next series

Kids TV producers Lah-Lah Productions, who made Lah-Lah’s Adventures for ABC, are turning to crowd-funding for their next project The Stripy Sock Club because investment raised so far has not met production costs.

Creators Tina and Mark Harris are seeking $300,000 for their 26 seven-minute episodes through Indiegogo. They are hoping parents will get behind their initiative, as an educational, Australian-made show.

Tina Harris said, “A lot of preschool content on Australian screens now consists of animated shows from overseas, with funding tied to the potential for revenue from toy sales. As our show focuses on making music, we don’t really have funding coming in from toy licensing. Funding for a show like ours comes from broadcaster license fees – which are getting smaller all the time, government funding – which is getting harder to access, and angel investors – who demand large chunks of profits and merchandising rights. Therefore, we’ve chosen to tread a completely new funding path.”

It comes at a time when the production sector is pushing a Make It Australian campaign while commercial networks lobby to drop their content quotas for children’s television.

The campaign will run for a month online.