 |
       |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
 |
|
Optimism at Sheffield Maybe C21 Kids is mistaken but was there a curious and somewhat unfamiliar sense of optimism present at the Showcomotion Children's Media Conference in Sheffield, England, this week? Not only were there plenty of new commissions unveiled in Sheffield (see C21's news coverage here) but Channel 4 was seemingly embracing the new youth remit handed down to it by the Digital Britain report two weeks ago and ITV was shouting about the fact that its commissioning budget for CiTV is actually going up. This from the broadcaster that sparked the UK kids TV sector's sense of pessimism all those years ago by closing Granada Kids and dropping its original children's programming duties. Channel 4 is keen to carry content for younger teenagers, its education commissioning editor Matt Locke told delegates. "I'm really up for it," he said. "I've been at the channel for two years now, commissioning a wide variety of genres focusing on 14-19s. We are only at the early stages; the Digital Britain report only came out quite recently, so we're just sitting down and starting to develop our response, as there was no additional funding given to us to serve that audience. There's absolutely the desire to do it." Aside from his desire to reach out to kids, Locke's enthusiasm is also about C4 reaching audiences that TV, for whatever reasons, can't reach. Teens "are clearly under-served by television as a platform. I want to find out how we can reach that audience, how we can engage them with stories," he said. As for CiTV, controller of ITV's digital channels Emma Tennant was on hand to explain just what she wanted to deliver to viewers of CiTV. "We're not really looking for animation," she said. "Budgets being what they are, we can acquire that more cost-effectively. But we'd like to get more real kids on the channel." Factual entertainment for four- to nine-year-olds is the order of the day, with Art Attack, Finger Tips and Prove It as good examples of what has worked for CiTV in the past. Tennant even expressed her desire for more drama, citing My Parents Are Aliens as an example of a show that had performed well on the network. Perhaps she is already planning on getting her hands on some top-sliced BBC licence fees, given how drama is perhaps the most expensive genre for kids and adults alike. Step forward BBC North director Peter Salmon to warn the conference that top-slicing wouldn't necessarily help the BBC's struggling rivals, no matter what the intention behind such proposals might be. In his keynote on Wednesday, he slammed the idea of "mugging" the UK public broadcaster for a slice of the licence fee to prop up kids content on other channels. "The notion that you punish the BBC, or BBC Children's, by carving up its funding because it is successful is a very British thing to do," he said. "But the notion that at the first sign of trouble you run out and mug the BBC is a bad idea. There're lots of reasons ITV has failed… But the notion you can't make money from children's content is a nonsense." Perhaps the kids TV production industry's keenness to get ITV back commissioning original children's shows, even with BBC cash, has meant it's overlooked the very basic idea that top-slicing not only means taking public money and simply handing it a private company that has already proven it can't make money from children's content, but at the same time reduces the amount the BBC, the one UK broadcaster that has kept kids TV producers afloat these past few years, can itself spend on kids TV. It seems odd to reward a broadcaster that has walked away from its public service obligations to air original kids television by giving it BBC money. 3 Jul 2009 © C21 Media 2009 
C21 Home | FutureMedia Home | Printer Friendly | Email a Friend |
|
|
|
|
|
|
