Peppa Pig faces chop in Australia

Australian politicians have called on pubcaster ABC to save hit preschool toon Peppa Pig from being cancelled in the wake of cuts to funding.

Peppa Pig

ABC MD Mark Scott told a Senate committee yesterday that he could not rule out programme cuts and refused to say if the children’s favourite could be saved from the axe.

“We have contracts to continue to deliver Peppa Pig but of course the service we provide depends on the funding envelope provided,” he said. “The easiest levers to pull in budget cuts are programming cuts – to cut a series and save millions of dollars with one decision.”

Scott added: “I don’t want to (cut series), but I can’t give any guarantees.”

He also revealed staff redundancies would start at ABC in the next few weeks as it tackles government funding cuts (a reduction of A$120m over four years) and could not guarantee the safety of regional radio stations or programmes on the children’s channel, ABC3.

But Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s office has hit back, arguing that the broadcaster should operate more efficiently.

“Rather than butchering Peppa Pig, the ABC could, as a suggestion, consider trimming the fat off overseas broadcasts for Q&A which Senate estimates was told today cost in excess of A$200,000 per show,” a government spokeswoman said.

Peppa Pig, from UK animation studio Astley Baker Davies, currently broadcasts in over 180 countries and is distributed by Entertainment One.

The cartoon is ABC’s number one children’s television show on its catch-up service iview and the broadcaster is also licensed to sell official merchandise through its shops.

The news comes as ABC this week commissioned its first original documentary series for iview.