ITV defends kids’ output

UK commercial broadcaster ITV has defended the amount of original programming it commissions for children, having come under fire from the creator of Teletubbies, Anne Wood.

Wood told BBC Radio 4 at the weekend that she believes kids’ TV in the UK is “in long-term decline.”

The number of commissions in the children’s genre from the UK’s commercial broadcasters, which also include Channel 4 and Channel 5, have taken a dramatic nosedive in the past decade.

The 2003 Broadcasting Act reduced pressure on commercial broadcasters to produce children’s content of their own, while rules on advertising aimed at kids were tightened up in 2007, significantly reducing the commercial potential of the genre.

“If you are an independent producer, you have one customer and that is the BBC. Even though there is a multiplicity of channels, the number of people who commission in any serious way have disappeared,” Wood said.

“Whilst new commissions are commercially challenging, we do commission original UK children’s content as part of our programming mix,” ITV responded.

The channel pointed to locally produced series such as Fort Boyard: Ultimate Challenge, Scrambled! and Horrid Henry, a fourth season of which was commissioned recently.

It is also the home of the new Thunderbirds series, although that is in production with New Zealand production companies Pukeko Pictures and Weta Workshop.

Channel 5 has emerged as an alternative to the BBC as a home for preschool programming, recently commissioning series such as Toot the Tiny Tugboat and Wissper, which are being made with the help of the UK’s tax credit for animation.

However, children’s TV producers in the country are still unsatisfied with the overall support from the main commercial broadcasters and are hoping a potential tax break for live-action children’s content could make the genre more commercially viable.