This weekend’s MipJunior saw the children’s entertainment industry emerge from a turbulent summer with a newfound sense of social responsibility. Nico Franks reports.

There’s no doubt that a summer in which the UK has voted to leave the EU, the US election has grown ever more toxic and Europe has been on high alert from terrorism has left a deep mark on the children’s TV industry.

However, to their credit, most businesses arrived in Cannes after a traumatic few months for many with a sense of purpose and desire to instigate change.

Deirdre Brennan, VP of content at Corus Kids in Canada, summed up the feeling among many at this year’s event when she said ^[1] during her keynote that “in a nervous world” we need “a voice that’s optimistic and aspirational.”

Who better to provide that than the children’s industry, asked Brennan: “We are a unique voice to the adults of tomorrow, so let’s embrace that. Kids are creative, resilient and fearless. Why should they expect anything less from us?”

Brennan’s speech, which can be viewed here ^[2], also touched on the unique nature of the Canadian TV industry and the disappearance of the generation gap between parents and children, resulting in a growing need for family content.

But Brennan’s point that perhaps made the most impact was that the children’s content industry needs to understand the importance of the role it will play in the lives of future generations.

Having spent so many years obsessing ^[3] over the new platforms to sell to, it’s clear the industry needs to get back to focusing on programming. And what has been made very apparent over the past weekend is that children’s programming has a diversity problem.

Sarah Muller, who is leaving her role ^[4] overseeing scripted, animation and coproductions at CBBC in the UK to join Channel 5 later this year, was the most vocal exec about the issue at MipJunior.

“We’re not doing too badly with our diverse casting across ranges of disabilities and ethnicity on screen. What we are failing at, and what I’m personally working as hard as I can on, is what happens behind the camera,” said Muller.

She expressed her dismay at walking into writers’ rooms and seeing only “white men between a very narrow age band who all have the same fields of experiences and the same stories to tell.”

“I always look for writers that have different sets of experiences. I’m trying to get more women into comedy and trying to get more ethnicity into different types of writing,” she said.

Marc Buhaj, senior VP and general manager at Disney XD, agreed with Muller about the need to step up efforts to get people from different backgrounds involved in the creative process.

“It’s about the people who are telling the stories. You have to work really proactively to bring in people who might not normally be within that clique. Each medium has its own folks who have been doing the same thing for a very long time,” said Buhaj.

He added that the Mouse House has initiatives in places designed to get more female directors involved in its live-action multi-camera sitcoms, while the number of female creators on its shows was increasing.

“On the animation side, we have female creators on animated series, which traditionally has been a white, male place. You have to work hard at it, both short and long term,” said Buhaj.

Muller and Buhaj weren’t the only ones with anxieties about whether children’s TV is “inclusive” enough. Indeed, if one phrase gave “great content” a run for its money as the most used during the panel sessions during MipJunior it was “more diversity.”

Emma Worrollo, MD at London-based research company The Pineapple Lounge, told delegates teenagers today are emerging from childhood with “strong feelings about inclusivity and diversity. And they’re passing this down to their younger siblings, cousins and family members.”

This is already being reflected in some programming reaching the pipelines of broadcasters around the world. Just before MipJunior kicked off, Canadian broadcaster TVO greenlit ^[5] an animated series for children about a diverse group of people, including a gay family, who live in a big city.

16 Hudson (39×7′) follows four sets of neighbours living in the same apartment block as they embrace each other’s similarities and differences while celebrating cultural holidays like Chinese New Year, Norooz and Diwali together.

“It is our goal to create shows that are well balanced and reflect the true nature of the world kids live in today. My daughter has friends with all kinds of backgrounds and those values are not being represented on the screen. We are here to change that,” says co-creator Shabnam Rezaei of the show’s producer Big Bad Boo Studios.

Big Bad Boo claims the series is the first of its kind to include main characters from diverse backgrounds – Iranian, Chinese, half-Indian, half-Irish, as well as a gay family. But if MipJunior 2016 is anything to go by, then it certainly won’t be the last.

  ^[6]