Labor calls on govt to release Children’s Screen Content review
While Children's TV continues to do it tough, the govt is yet to release the review it has had since December.
- Published by David Knox
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The Australian and Children’s Screen Content review has been with the government since December.
Labor has called on Communications Minister Mitch Fifield to release The Australian and Children’s Screen Content review it has held since December.
Yesterday Screen Australia’s Drama Report showed investment in local film and television programs for children dipped to $54 million, down from $100 million in 2016-17. The number of content hours also declined from 111 to 71, well below the five-year average of 109. Animated production dropped by 38 hours to a seven-year low.
“The government has failed to adapt the policy settings to ensure Australian children have access to a diversity of quality Australian content,” Shadow Minister for Communications Michelle Rowland said.
“Labor acknowledges a number of factors are at play in the decline and urges the minister to act to remove policy uncertainty as a factor.
“It’s clear this out of touch government needs to get its act together on children’s content.”
Screen Producers Australia: CEO Matt Deaner said regulatory models need to be adapted to ensure our children continue to have access to Australian stories.
“This is in stark contrast to the regulatory approach in the UK, which recently launched a £60m fund for children’s programming. Expenditure on Online Drama also now exceeds Children’s TV Drama, which has tripled since last year (now $53M). This is an early sign of the shift in audiences towards online, highlighting the importance of local content obligations for new market entrants such as SVODs,” he said.
The Australian Children’s Television Foundation says a decline in Screen Australia’s investment in children’s content is making it harder for both high concept, high volume series to get made.
ACTF CEO Jenny Buckland says “This downward pressure is happening right at the time when high quality, high concept children’s drama is in demand. It’s no coincidence that The Bureau of Magical Things is 20 episodes, not 26. Screen Australia effectively no longer invests in 26 x half hour live action children’s series.”
A spokesperson for Senator Fifield said the government was continuing to work with stakeholders on the issue.
Source: SBS
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One Response
Most of the drop is because Australian commercial broadcasters have given up trying use animated shows targeted at the international market to make some money and meet their quotas. Now they are just making cheap shows and trying to get the quotas reduced. And it is driven by consumer preference, parents don’t what their kids sitting in front of the TV for hours at a time watching TV that basically merchandising ads used to run other ads in. They prefer them to stream a couple of favourite shows. This is a global trend. The Conservatives in the UK responded to this problem by offering up #50m in subsidies to commercial broadcasters to compete against the BBC. The BBC shows quality ad free childrens content on its channels and online has nearly 90% of the UK market. It will be hard to challenge that and most the produced shows will just end up on the international market.