Save Kids’ TV

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 Voice of the Listener and Viewer 14th Annual Children’s Conference takes place on Wednesday the 5th November this year, at the New Connaught Rooms, Covent Garden, London WC2, from 9.15 am – 4.45 pm.  This year the theme is “Children’s Television: a glimmer of hope”.  The VLV has offered Save Kids’ TV supporters a special discounted rate of £65 including VAT, as opposed to the usual rate for individuals of £88.  This rate is not available to corporates – only to individuals.

To obtain the special Save Kids’ TV discounted rate you need to write to Linda Forbes Voice of the Listener and Viewer, PO Box 401, Gravesend, Kent, DA12 9FY and send a cheque for £65.  Please quote the

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The Save Kids’ TV Annual General Meeting will be held on the 28th October from 6 – 8 pm at The Windsor Room, Baden-Powell House, Queensgate, Kensington, London SW7

Speakers from the producers’ alliance PACT, the Voice of the Listener and Viewer, the Federation of Entertainment Unions and Action for Children’s Arts will join SKTV Chair Anna Home for a discussion on the achievements thus far and the campaign plans for the future.

To book your place email admin@savekidstv.org.uk

The Campaign is entering a crucial stage with the publication of the final Ofcom report on Public Service Broadcasting.  The report concludes that Ofcom is unable to use its current powers to maintain children’s provision by commercial broadcasters, and highlights four …

House of Commons Event – 21st October
The Performers Alliance Parliamentary Group, in association with the NUJ Parliamentary Group and the Federation of Entertainment Unions are holding a public meeting at the House of Commons on Tuesday 21st October at 10 a.m. The meeting is intended to cover the general issues under the heading Public Service Broadcasting and the OfCOM Review but will significantly feature the concerns around children’s content as the unions are SKTV’s partners in the campaign.

It will bring together the workers in journalism, drama and TV production to meet the policymakers who will ultimately decide PSB’s future direction.

Speakers will include:
Mark Thompson – Director General – BBC
Tony Robinson – actor and writer
The Chair will be Neil Gerrard MP …

The Voice of the Listener and Viewer 14th Annual Children’s Conference takes place on Wednesday the 5th November this year, at the New Connaught Rooms, Covent Garden, London WC2, from 9.15 am – 4.45 pm.  This year the theme is “Children’s Television: a glimmer of hope”.  With speakers to be announced shortly, the VLV conference always provides an in depth analysis of the issues surrounding children’s broadcasting – and one major focus this year will be on the final response to the Ofcom PSB review.

For more information go to: http://www.vlv.org.uk/pages/1-events.php  and to book, click through to: http://www.vlv.org.uk/pages/bookingform.php

There has been some press coverage recently about the VL’;s founder and long-standing chairperson Jocelyn Hay who has retired from …

Ofcom’s second report on the future of Public Service Broadcasting is full of implications for kids’ TV in the UK.  It sets the agenda for the political debate on how PSB should go forward in the digital future.  It’s also the launch of a final consultation on the three remaining options for PSB as Ofcom sees it.

Ofcom have ruled out the BBC “going it alone” as the only Public Service Broadcaster  - a position SKTV felt would lead to reduction in choice and potential decrease in quality.  They have refined the models they outlined earlier in the year and now they come down to: An “Enhanced Evolution” model in which ITV, C4 and Five would retain their public service obligations, …

Since our April Newsletter SKTV has been active in a number of areas. The main task has been to ensure a coherent response to the Ofcom Public Service Review which stresses the need for the kids issue to be dealt with promptly and with appropriate funding.

Next - our discussions with the BBC Trust to ensure their review recommends strengthening the regulatory position, so that BBC must maintain and indeed extend children’s provision and recognise its fundamental importance in the public service mix.

SKTV has been represented at some key meetings in recent months:
At the June 12th launch of the International Broadcasting Trust report “Screening the World”. This was a major survey into UK broadcasters’ commitment to portraying international …

Showcomotion takes place each July. The two day conference covers all aspects of funding, producing and distributing children’s content, form the creative, business, and policy perspectives. This year 385 delegates descended on Sheffield and the opening address was given by Ed Vaizey, MP for Wantage & Didcot, and Conservative spokesman on Culture and Broadcasting. Showcomotion organisers said they found it interesting that while the Conservative party responded to the invitation within 24 hours, the DCMS, and Andy Burnham, the current Culture Minister has still not responded to a similar request!

While unable to commit the Conservatives to any particular policy or any one of the proposed Ofcom models he was extremely supportive of the industry and SKTV’s position on

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The Department for Children Schools and Families has asked Professor David Buckingham to conduct an assessment of the Impact of the Commercial World on Children’s lives. The enquiry into the commercial impacts on children’s well-being is clearly in a wider context than just that of TV and Media but we believe that it is very important that SKTV are part of this wider debate about children and childhood.

Cary Bazalgette prepared our submission. Apart from its value as a response to the Buckingham process it’s an excellent statement of the fundamental principles underlying SKTV and puts children’s television firmly in the wider cultural context.

You can read it here.

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

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As digital switch-over approaches Ofcom reported on their vision of the future of Public Service Broadcasting. The crisis in children’s television was included in the review and created the stimulus for Ofcom to bring the date of the review forward as the kids issue is seen as the “canary in the coalmine” for all the other PSB genres (like current affairs and regional news) under threat as regulatory powers have little meaning when there is no longer “gifted spectrum” for Ofcom to use a lever on the commercial broadcasters to persuade them to offer public service content even though it doesn’t make a lot of money from advertising.

Ofcom proposed four possible ways forward in the report and called for …

In this interview Jana Bennett confirmed that the core investment was secure and that the BBC were looking to increase investment both on TV and the web. She declared that the BBC’s commitment to this genre and to British production is ’rock solid’. The BBC has since announced a further £15m investment in online activity – particularly aimed at CBeebies.  However no specific new figures for television were mentioned by Jana Bennett though she talked about ‘a thirst for original output’ with particular reference to CBeebies

SKTV is concerned that there is as much if not greater need for new/original output on the older channel CBBC and have written to Jana to raise the issue and to ask for clarification of …

The Wombles viral video produced by Pact highlighted the decline in UK kids programming in a funny & hard hitting way. The all new American Wombles made a huge impact on the web and getting wide press coverage including a full page spread in the Metro; coinciding with the Ofcom report . It has really put the kid’s issue back on the agenda.

If by any chance you’ve missed it you can find it at www.britishkidstv.com

Remember it’s viral, so spread the word by sending it to your friends!

The Ofcom PSB Review explores the future of all the genres on TV threatened by the collapse of the commercial channels’ commitment to public service broadcasting (such as regional news, current affairs and arts programming). These programmes were always underpinned by regulatory requirements and the fact that all the main broadcasters are “gifted” valuable spectrum on analogue TV, in return for which they provide a certain number of hours of the types of programmes which are difficult to fund with advertising revenue. As digital switch-over brings that to an end, the future looks bleak for all these genres. Of course this was already identified by the research into children’s television conducted last year. Those findings …

As part of its campaign to save British kids’ TV, Pact has released a viral film starring much-loved characters The Wombles. The hilarious sketch, featuring the Bad Ass Wombles is set in Central Park, New York and aims to highlight the effects of US imports on our children’s programming.

The viral, created by Clikflik and featuring the voices of Bernard Cribbins, Wayne Forester and Emma Tate, can be viewed by visiting British kids’ TV where you can also sign the petition.

March 26th 2008

Westminster University’s CAMRI Research Centre and CBBC are staging a one day conference on children and virtual worlds – the online phenomenon capturing so many younger users in the last few years. From Club Penguin to World of Warcraft, kids are immersed in these multi-player experiences and this conference this conference will offer demonstrations, discussion and research on this new form of media for children.

The conference will run from 10.00am - 5.30pm at the University of Westminster 35 Marylebone Road, London, NW1 5LS. You can register at www.ChildrenInVirtualWorlds.org.uk

Last year the University of Westminster carried out a research project for Save Kids’ TV collating the body of research which looks at the positive effects of …

March 26th 2008

TV psychologist Dr Tanya Byron was asked by the Prime Minister to conduct a comprehensive review into children’s use of screen time with interactive media and games. She reveals the findings of “the Byron Review” at a special event being hosted by BAFTA and produced by the Showcomotion Children’s Media Conference on the 3rd April in London.

The Byron Review will have important consequences for the debate into children’s use of media in this country. On the one hand it will no doubt provide some ammunition for the Toxic Childhood campaigners concerned with children’s “over-use” of screen time and some of the content they experience there. On the other it will raise further questions about the

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26th March 2008

Ofcom’s James Thickett responded to our last newsletter to let us know that Ofcom no plans to launch their final statement on the Children’s Review on the 10th April ‘08, not the 8th as previously planned.

This announcement will outline the various response to the consultation Ofcom launched last year into the interim findings of it s Review of Children’s Television, SKTV submitted our comprehensive plan for the future of children’s public service content in the UK to that consultation process.

Ofcom’s announcement on the 10th will also contain the first findings of the general Public Service Review, so the children’s conclusions will feed into that Review and form a significant part of the thinking for it as the …

17th March 2008

The loss of home grown children’s programmes on TV may damage the wealth and future of the UK online entertainment and games sector says Dr Chris Thorpe, Chief Technical Officer of Mind Candy, the creators of Moshi Monsters. This is an article which Chris wrote for online newsletter Licensing.biz, in support of Save Kids’ TV

I don’t need to tell anyone reading this about the statistics relating to the erosion of home grown children’s TV programming by imports from the US. Nor do I need to tell any of you about the impact this will have on British children, or indeed the effect it will have on the creative industries that have traditionally produced children’s TV programmes. I …

17th March 2008

Save Kids’ TV acts as the umbrella organisation for a growing alliance of bodies concerned about the future of kids’ content in the UKL and how that will affect our children, our society and the content creation industries. The Alliance has had some tremendous successes in recent months, not least the major coup pulled off by Equity, the Writers’ Guild and the Musician’s Union, acting together as the Performers and Writers All-party Parliamentary Group, when one of their supporting MPs was granted an Adjournment Debate on the crisis in Kids’ TV on the 4th December 07. PACT assisted by providing briefings for some of the MPs involved.

The Campaign Alliance now comprises 14 organisations which meet regularly

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17th March 2008

The Producers’ Alliance PACT have set up a simple method for anyone to find the address for their MP and send them a pre-written email requesting they sign an Early Day Motion tabled in the House of Commons last December.

The motion, proposed by Janet Anderson MP, 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 …

17th March 2008

The BBC’s announcement that it has cancelled Grange Hill effectively masks a more 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.

CBeebies programming is now scheduled at 3 pm so that there appears to be no reduction in overall hours. But children over 6 are losing out. This was the age group identified as most under-served in Ofcom’s Future of Children’s Television Programming Report in October 2007. The news comes in spite of Director General Mark Thompson’s recent assurances to the Save Kids’ TV Campaign of the BBC’s “commitment …

…Or does it? Like the reports of Mark Twain’s death, the excitement in the broadcasting trade press about ITV’s supposed re-entry to the market is to say the least premature. ITV is spinning a small amount of money into a success story, but the reality is not so dramatic. Some of the new shows being discussed by the broadcaster were already in the pipeline – the tail end of deals they were forced to honour from programmes “green-lit” for production before they decided to halt commissioning. There are some commitments to new money – but these are nothing like the figures from a few years ago when ITV used to spend upwards of £30m per year …

17th March 2008

On March 13th Channel 4 revealed their thinking after a nine-month examination of their public service purposes and a massive survey of the audience. The Next on 4 plans explore the extent to which Channel 4 should provide an alternative public service vision to the BBC, and how that can be funded as their advertising revenues fall over the next few years. The Chanel 4 Board come down strongly against privatisation and simply competing in the commercial market.

In the short term they have proposed two pilot plans to explore what becoming a multi-platform public service alternative will be about. The one that got most of the press attention is the launch of a …

To encourage people to sign the e-petition, we made a compilation tape to remind people of the kids’ shows they loved in the past. Thank you to the many producers and distributors who contributed clips, and to the lovely Chrissie Hynde, who let us use her wonderful song ‘”Kid” for free. There are 66 clips in total. How many can you remember? [youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=HCRReQALf04[/youtube]

Ofcom’s report and discussion paper on the Future of Children’s TV called for views and comments on the issues raised, with a submission deadline of 20th December. Save Kids’ TV has been working on a comprehensive response which includes its proposals for an institution to protect the long-term future of quality media for children in the UK. We submitted the plan on the 19th and it can be seen in full here.

This was a major piece of work and our thanks go out to everyone who contributed to the debate and the final document.

The proposal envisages a “funded online destination” for kids from 6 – 15, which would include not only rich narrative content via video-on-demand, but …

The annual VLV children’s conference was held on 7th November and was very well attended. Peter Duncan in his role as Chief Scout opened the conference with a plea to take the future of kid’s media and culture seriously. The conference was dominated by issues raised in Richard Deverell’s statement concerning the future of BBC children’s programmes and the impending cuts.

PACT and Save Kids’ TV were invited to outline their plans for solutions to the crisis, and media commentator Ray Snoddy responded from an independent perspective. He was concerned that tax incentives might be difficult to get past the Treasury in times of belt-tightening, but was more sanguine about the possibilities for Lottery and other forms of …

An Adjournment Debate initiated by the Performers’ Alliance Parliamentary Group supported by PACT was held in Westminster Hall on 4th December. It was opened by Labour MP Neil Gerrard and all parties were represented. The debate ranged over all the Ofcom options and though there were differences in interpretation between the parties there was consensus that action needed to be taken to protect children’s programming in the UK.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Culture Media and Sport, Gerry Sutcliffe, responded to the debate. He agreed there were issues to be taken forward: “When respected industry figures such as Anna Home and Floella Benjamin and others speak we have to listen and take the issue seriously”. However he did …

This was held on 6th December and was intended for Ofcom to gather views in the consultation process. Speakers addressed the status quo and looked to the future. Responses to the Ofcom options were made by Five; Pact and SKTV. Anthony Lilley, Chief Executive of Magic Lantern Productions (and the co-author of the Ofcom report on the new- media PSP proposal for public service interactive content) made a strong plea that any new service be future-focused, which Anna Home for SKTV was able to reassure him our proposals were.

Ofcom stressed the need for the BBC to maintain its commitments and the possibility of tighter guarantees in terms of hours, and Anne Gilchrist CBBC creative director spoke strongly against …

Coverage of the campaign has been on the increase since the release of the Ofcom report in October.

Save Kids’ TV representatives have made appearances on BBC Breakfast – with admirable help from ex Blue Peter presenter Mark Curry who took up the cause brilliantly. Floella Benjamin has also been in the press recently supporting the tax-break option and generally raising awareness.

There have been a number of radio interviews in recent weeks – including unusually a piece for an all-Ireland radio station. Perhaps the sequence with the most effective reach was Anna Home’s interview on Woman’s Hour earlier this month.

And finally the mainstream press are taking notice with the most recent articles being in the Observer and the Sun, …

This is a quick sprint through the key events of 2007, which has seen real progress in bring the campaign to public and political attention.
January:

SKTV submits written evidence to the House of Commons Culture Media and Sport Committee’s long-running investigation into the future of Public Service Television. After this and other allies’ interventions, the failure of children’s PSB is a major feature of the committee’s report when it is published in November.

SKTV advises Ofcom on the investigations needed for their Children’s Television Review.

February:

SKTV and international allies, the American Centre for Children and Media, and Action for Children’s Television Canada host an industry leaders’ breakfast meeting at Kidscreen in New York to discuss the UK situation and how it might …

We’ve had an eventful and in many ways highly successful year. The issues were brought to the attention of politicians, the public are beginning to be more aware of what kids stand to lose and how that will affect all of us, and the Ofcom review was a major step forward which we suspect would not have happened so soon without the constant pressure of SKTV and its allies.

We have tried to keep you in touch with the issues, through the website, these newsletters and our press coverage. And we have ensured that at every turn and each event the SKTV position is represented.

We are more than a self-interest group. We represent the coming-together of concerned industry professionals, …

“They used to clear the car park at Elstree Studios when the exterior scenes for Grange Hill were being shot, so the building could stand in for the school. My favourite parking spot whenever I went in was under the school sign, as if I was up to see Mrs McClusky about my sons’ education. And when it was broadcast, the series seemed so real that the streets emptied early as schoolkids hurried home to see it.

Grange Hill was relevant to them, and still is. Liverpool or north London, the stuff of school is the stuff of children’s lives. Identifying with characters and with situations is a crucial part of growing up…” Read the full blog …

October 3rd saw the launch of the Ofcom report which resoundingly revealed the crisis facing UK kids’ TV and supported many of the claims made by Save Kids’ TV and its campaign partners over the last 12 months. The report concluded by launching a public consultation on five possible futures for children’s media in the UK which will conclude on the 20th December. By March 2008 Ofcom will report on their analysis and recommend a way forward. But there is no guarantee that the Government will act – especially as support for the industry inevitably needs some element of funding.

With that in mind the Campaign has launched an e-petition on the 10 Downing Street

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The Ofcom report made a real impression on the media. The figures were startling – only 1% of the 113,000 hours of content on UK kids’ TV is new UK produced programming. Budgets have been cut, production has been slashed and UK kids and their parents are able to identify what they are losing – home grown dramas and factual programmes in particular. In a round of newspaper, magazine, TV and radio interviews SKTV and campaign supporters made real headway in getting the public to understand just what their kids are losing and how this will affect us all in future.

There have been flurries of press interest in the past – but nothing as effective as a …

Ofcom reports on Children’s TV
Ofcom launched its review of Children’s Public Service Broadcasting in February ‘07. Originally intended as part of the main review of PSB, the intense lobbying by SKTV, PACT and others alerted the regulator to the problems the industry faced, as ITV deserted kids’ commissioning and abandoned its commitment to terrestrial TV for kids, FIVE scaled back its children’s output and the effects of the advertising ban began to bite.

The children’s review was brought forward and has paved the way for a better understanding of just what is happening to public service programming in the commercial sector as the old constraints whereby commercial broadcasters traded certain genres of content in return for their valuable licences to …

What Save Kids’ TV needs to do next…
In its review of Public Service Broadcasting to children Ofcom has identified that parents know their children need television programming which reflects their own culture and are concerned that there is not enough provision of such public service programming. Ofcom has also identified a huge funding gap that cannot be filled by commercial means. The market can no longer provide the programmes UK kids need and deserve. Drama and factual programmes for older children are the hardest hit, but all age groups and genres are affected. The BBC is also under pressure, and meanwhile repeats and imported programmes fill the schedules

SKTV believes that Government must intervene to ensure an …

Friends and Allies
The Save Kids’ TV sponsored meeting to co-ordinate the plans of eleven organisations engaged in the campaign produced a unique press statement revealing the extent of the alliance – from audience groups to craft guilds – and a unanimity of purpose. The alliance will meet at regular intervals to keep in touch. This is the statement which all parties will add to their own press-releases when reacting to the Ofcom review.

Joint statement on public service children’s broadcasting

UK-made children’s programming is an important part of public service broadcasting, reflecting the lives of children living in Britain today and telling their stories in a way that imported programmes cannot. The members of some of the bodies represented in …

Special General Meeting
There are still places available at the Save Kids’ TV special General Meeting in London on the 16th October ‘07. This will be your chance to find out more about Ofcom’s report on its Children’s Public Service Review and discuss SKTV’s reactions to it. It’ll also provide an opportunity to learn more about the consultation process Ofcom will undertake up to the end of 2007 and the various options it sees as potential ways forward. The SKTV Exec will outline initial thoughts on their proposal for a funded alternative Public Service Provider for kids, and are looking for ideas on how the campaign should progress from here.

Save Kids’ TV was born in a series of meetings …

Watching, Wanting and Well-being
By Greg Childs

The latest salvo in the continuing attacks on children’s use of media came in a report issued by the National Consumer Council in which academics studied the attitudes of higher and lower income children (9-13’s) in relation to consumption, advertising, acceptance of media messages and the volume of television consumed.  The report – “Watching, Wanting and Well-being” available on the NCC website, makes interesting reading, not least because the research itself could be said to be “wanting” in many respects.  It contains inaccuracies – in that it claims children are watching more television when Ofcom’s latest figures clearly indicate they are not - and it glaringly states the obvious when it reveals that …

Toxic Childhood?
By Jayne Kirkham

Ever since I can remember there has been someone banging on about how bad television is for children.  If I was old enough I would remember people banging on about the evils of the printing press.  However, it cannot be denied that the modern western lifestyle is having a devastating, some would say ‘toxic’, effect on the health and wellbeing of our children.  We’ve seen how mass produced food is harmful to kids, but what about the mass media?  Is that as harmful?  Is television ‘toxic’?

Academics such as Dr Aric Sigman would say yes and call for a ban on children watching television.  But such an argument is simplistic and polarising and in this day and age …

Harry Potter and the Great Funding Gap
By Becky Parry

The Showcomotion Conference brought together several perspectives on providing the best for British kids. In a session which discussed the lack of independent film-making in this country for young people (there are films for adults produced with UK Film Council money, but surprise, surprise, no films made specifically for children or families) speakers from Germany, Holland and Sweden outlined how their markets and funders support children’s film. The UK has a great history of providing some of the best children’s film production in the world – but on Hollywood-funded films, the profit for which return to the USA (e.g. the Harry Potter series). And the UKFC supports …

A New Approach
By Adrian Mills

As the Ofcom review of public service provision for children draws to a close, it’s becoming clear that the final report will contain options for possible policy interventions which could help solve the crisis in Kids’ TV. Ofcom will be consulting on these during the Autumn, and while they cannot make any of them happen (that’s down to government) they want to stimulate a debate which could lead to the best possible option being adopted.

With this in mind, over the last couple of months SKTV has been developing a multi-media proposition which embraces children’s new relationships with media on all platforms. Our aim is to lay the groundwork for a …

What the Dickens…?
By Colin Ward

On the 6th July SKTV launched its new campaign video at the Showcomotion Children’s Media Conference in Sheffield. It immediately stirred up a healthy debate amongst the delegates as to what were the most important messages we should be trying to get across. On the one hand we want to let people know that there is a financial crisis in the industry but on the other we don’t want to dwell too much on the ad ban as that is already a fact of life.

Which sort of makes it hard to say very much, apart from “kids’ TV is really very good, honest”.

But the cold hard fact is that the commercial business model for kids’ …

A Co-ordinated Approach
By Greg Childs

Save Kids’ TV is in the process of convening a meeting of all the groups campaigning for support for children’s media to compare notes on campaign planning.  This is in light of the forthcoming party conferences in September, the Parliamentary Select Committee report expected in the Autumn (on the future of public service broadcasting, in which children’s has been a major feature) and the Ofcom children’s PSB report in October.  While each of the many organisations involved has their own perspectives and skill set, Save Kids’ TV has been working to create links between bodies as diverse as the Voice of the Listener and Viewer, Action for Children’s Arts, PACT and the actors’ union Equity, as …

Time to talk-back
By Janet Frawley

Ofcom have now completed their research into the state of the children’s television market and this will be presented to their Management and Board shortly.  The current aim is to publish this research report on October 3rd.  The results will feed into their full Public Service Broadcast Review early in 2008.  Because kids’ TV is experiencing a period of great change in the media landscape, children’s programming will have a special category in this review.

When they publish their children’s PSB report they’ll also suggest broad policy options, for public response and debate.  Save Kids’ TV will be responding with their own proposal for PSB provision for kids, and as part of the campaign we will keep …

Making a Commotion
By Greg Childs

Save Kids’ TV was born at last year’s Showcomotion Children’s Media Conference. In the final session organisations like PACT and producers from across the kids media landscape focused on the melt-down facing their industry and realised that there was almost no public awareness of the effects that funding restrictions were going to bring to their kids viewing choices in the near future.

So Save Kids’ TV was well represented at the fourth annual Showcomotion conference on the 6th and 7th July at the Showroom Cinemas in Sheffield. Showcomotion is really the only time when all the various contributors to content provision for kids in the UK come together under one roof to discuss the creative, business …

The Save Kids’ TV Campaign was born at Showcomotion last year. This year’s conference, held from 4th-6th July, saw the launch of the campaign’s first viral video. Watch the video

We also announced an initiative to prepare a comprehensive plan, for a funded destination for public service kids’ media content, which could be proposed to the government once the Ofcom Children’s PSB Review is completed.

“There used to be such a thing as a sense of responsibility among broadcasters: a feeling that this extraordinary medium, with so much to offer and so much power to affect lives, should be used to make things better, richer, more interesting for those who made up the audience – especially for children. But the ideology of ‘profit before everything’ shows itself to be as toxic in this field as in every other. When audiences are regarded as customers to be separated from their money as quickly and efficiently as possible, there is no chance for life-enhancing work to flourish, and children are regarded as a marketing opportunity at best, a dangerous and feral threat at worst, and an expensive

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I thought it would be a good idea to open this latest newsletter with a quick overview of recent events. And there’s more information at the end of the newsletter, if you would like to read on. Thanks.

On the 25th of April Bafta and the Department of Culture, Media and Sport co-hosted a Children’s Summit to discuss the crisis in the industry. The Broadcasting Minister Shaun Woodward was there with members of his civil service team. Also invited were Michael Grade (ITV), Jana Bennett (BBC), and John McVay (PACT), along with producers from the games industry and a cross-section of children’s TV producers and broadcasters. Unfortunately it turned out to be a deeply depressing meeting. There was absolutely no sign …

Can Television be good for Children?
By Dr Kaoruko Kondo and Professor Jeanette Steemers

Save Kids’ TV commissioned a review of the available recent research on the beneficial affects of television in children’s lives. Despite much of what we read in the press, there is a significant body of evidence based research indicating that children, families and society as a whole gains from the fact that children watch and enjoy television programmes. They learn from them both formally and informally, and they help them discover their place in the world.

“The purpose of this literature review is to identify and review research which supports the view that children’s television is a potentially beneficial medium; that in certain circumstances it can be …

Save Kids’ TV lobbies the Parliament Select Commitee on Culture, Media and Sport

The Parliamentary Select Committee on Culture Media and Sport has been deliberating on the state of public service broadcasting in the UK and, thanks to lobbying by Save Kids’ TV and our partner organisations, they have included as part of their terms of reference the crisis in commercial children’s television in the UK. Save Kids’ TV submitted the following document as evidence to the committee. It sums up the current issues and offers some thoughts on solutions…

“As media changes, we need to ensure that children don’t get short-changed. Even though 80% of homes with children now have multi-channel television, we feel strongly that whatever happens long-term, …

First – an apology for the long gap since the last newsletter. It’s been a very busy couple of months for Save Kids’ TV. There have been heartening signs that the campaign is not only being noticed, but is starting to have an impact. But this week’s news about ITV1 hours (see below) reminds us we shouldn’t assume all will be well. The fight goes on.

1. ITV PRESSURE ON OFCOM
Recent press reports have revealed that ITV now has no intention of meeting its quota of 8 hours a week of children’s programmes on ITV1, averaged across the year, despite the regulator, Ofcom, making it quite clear that they consider anything less “a significant change”.

In the …

1.   GATHERING MOMENTUM
The problems which are leading to a catastrophic decline in kids’ rich media production in the UK, and consequently to children’s impoverishment in the long term are starting to be noticed by some of the people and bodies which matter in trying to find a solution.  Thanks to the efforts of Save Kids’ TV and the hard work put in by organisations such as PACT and the Voice of the Listener and Viewer, there has been some real progress in the last few weeks.

In December members of the SKTV Executive Committee met Ofcom to discuss their plans to review Public Service Broadcasting in the children’s sector. That investigation is under way now, having been brought forward from their intended date …

The CITV schedules for the first weeks of 2007 have been released to the press, revealing a drastic cut in hours, way above anything so far requested from Ofcom by ITV management.  Children’s programmes on ITV1 are down to just 2 hours a week - an hour on Saturday and an hour on Sunday mornings - with no kids’ programmes on weekday afernoons at all. 

ITV are claiming this is normal “flexing” of the schedule, which will be made up at other times in the year - the sort of thing they do to react to big sports events like the World Cup.  But rumour has it that this schedule extends after the first week of January when the kids are on holiday, into the rest …

Listen to a full interview with Anna Home on the issues facing the children’s industry and kids’ media in the UK in an exclusive podcast for the Media Snackers website.

Our single most important message is that children deserve the best television and unless we act now they are simply not going to get it. We need you to pass that message on to as many people as possible and to help we’ve put a new download on the SKTV site under the ‘Action’ section. It’s a letter/email you can pass on to all your friends, work colleagues, and anyone else who knows you. In fact you can even pass it on to people who don’t know you because it’s not very demanding, all we are asking is for people to go to the SKTV site and sign up as a …

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 …

The Ofcom decision on high salt, sugar and fatty food advertising to children has been announced.  See the Ofcom press release for more detail.  It will have a severe impact on the number and quality of children’s programmes made in the UK.  Taking an initially estimated £39m out of the revenues of commercial broadcasters has huge implications for commissioning and simply confirms ITV’s decision to get out of kids’ production.

Now the Campaign enters a new phase. 

Producers’ Alliance Pact have accepeted the ruling, but like Save Kids’ TV they want to know where future funding to assure the continuance of quality kids’ content is going to come from. 

Their statement looks to the future: “Pact calls on Ofcom to ensure …

Novelist and Children’s Laureate Jacqueline Wilson has expressed her support for Save Kids’ TV in a recent conference speech. Although a signatory of the “Toxic Childhood” letter in which 110 academics, writers and activists expressed their concerns about the amount of time being spent by children in front of screens, Jacqueline nevertheless expressed her concern over what will happen to original UK drama production if the television industry loses the money raised from advertising. At the conference Jacqueline took the opportunity to talk about the closure of Granada Kids and cast doubt on the wisdom of bringing in a ban on food advertising if there is no alternative funding to support children’s media. Full story on BBC …

Broadcast have reported that Five is re-evaluating its weekend children’s strand Shake in response to the likely ban on junk food advertising during kids TV. The broadcaster is holding off on most commissioning for the three-hour Saturday and Sunday block, which is aimed at five to 11-year-olds. Broadcast is also reporting that Ofcom is set to announce its decision on the advertising regulations imminently.

Five director of children’s programmes Nick Wilson denied Five would drop ‘Shake’ to concentrate on the pre-school slot ‘Milkshake’.

1. OFCOM DECISION ON CITV HOURS

The hot news this week is that the Ofcom Board have come to a
decision on the request by ITV to reduce their regulated hours of
children’s programmes from 8 to 2 per week. The Board refused
permission for this “significant change in the volume of children’s
programmes”. This is the first small victory for the Campaign and
PACT, the Writers Guild, and the VLV. It remains to be
seen what ITV will do with the hours it now has to fill, in that
it hasn’t commissioned any new programming since December, and there
are no stipulations as to where they source the programming, what
time of day it goes out, whether it is repeats or originations and
whether they spend money on it. This …

1. The Campaign and its aims

Following the General Meeting of the 6th September, purposes and objectives have now been defined as follows:
We are a campaigning organisation concerned with protecting the continued provision of indigenous UK media content for children.

Our objectives are to raise awareness, amongst the public and decision makers, of the current threats to the survival of children’s media made in the UK. We want to ensure that methods of support and funding are in place to counter those threats and in the long term improve the provision of quality media for UK kids.

What is being lost?
With millions of pounds of revenue leaving the industry if advertising bans are put in place, and millions more planned as cuts if …

The Campaign is on the move in terms of press interest and the planning to ensure it’s consistent, focused and efficient. The four working parties have either met or split into further work groups over the last week.

There are a number of important issues facing the children’s media industry and the children’s audience, some short term, others slightly further off. The aims of the Campaign are broadly to ensure that children in the UK continue to enjoy and benefit from well-funded quality media, produced in this country, which addresses their lives, interests, values and concerns. In this we form part of a wider effort to preserve children’s cultural entitlement in the UK, and we are in discussion with groups already …

LATEST NEWS ON WORKING PARTIES

The four groups pursuing various sections of the campaign have begun to meet separately to set out their plans.

The Policy Group will meet next Monday (7th August) - their role is to consider political and institutional lobbying and partnerships with other organisations such as BAFTA, the VLV, The Writers Guild, PACT etc. Rachel Murrell is co-ordinating this group.

The group considering new funding options for kids’ media, co-ordinated by Richard Langridge, is meeting on the 8th August.

The PR group, co-ordinated by Maddy Wiltshire, is working in sub-groups on different approaches to publicising the campaign and its objectives, including a viral web-based option.

The group looking at structure is planning an expansion of the website so that it …

The General Meeting

32 people attended the first meeting of the group which convened on the evening of the 24th July to try to decide the aims of the campaign, and how it should be structured, organised and financed. The two hour meeting made some real progress on both those topics and explored some ideas for the campaign itself.

Reports from the PACT Children’s and Animation Group, The BAFTA Kids Committee and the VLV all indicated support for what the campaign is trying to achieve. PACT reported that they had written to all MPs on the ad-ban issue, the VLV talked about their letter to Ofcom in response to the ad-funding consultation, and BAFTA Kids Committee have written to Ofcom …