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YACF unveils new round of funding

Channel 4 is adapting Terry Pratchett’s The Abominable Snow Baby

A coming-of-age teen drama that will air on ITV2 in the UK is among the latest projects to receive funding from the Young Audiences Content Fund (YACF).

Tell Me Everything (6×60′), from London-based ITV Studios and Noho Films & Television, is described as darkly comic and explores the stress on mental health that the omnipresence of technology and social media causes.

It follows a group of young people still searching for their own identity, exploring sexuality and experimenting with relationships, drink, drugs and sex.

The drama is joined by other projects in the animation, comedy, sci-fi, political documentary and news genres that will benefit from the fund.

It is managed by the British Film Institute (BFI) and was set up to reinvigorate the UK’s children’s TV sector via the creation of free-to-access content that reflects the lives of young people in the UK.

Following a successful spending review, the YACF will continue into its third year and receive up to £10.7m (US$15.1m) from the UK’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport in year three, meaning the fund will have had a total budget of up to £44.2m since launching 2019 – less than the £60m initially promised in late 2017.

The production slate includes a total of 12 new production awards, resulting in 42 supported productions made to date, with spend totalling £27.1m from launch in 2019 until the end of year two. The YACF has granted 129 development awards totalling £3.3m, an average of £25,600 per award.

The YACF is designed to contribute up to half of the production costs for projects that have secured a broadcast commitment from a free-to-access, Ofcom-regulated platform.

Other projects to have received production funding from the YACF include Pop Paper City (52×11′), produced by LoveLove Films IP for Milkshake!; season two of Go Green With The Grimwades (20×10′) on Milkshake!; scripted comedy Ted’s Top 10 (10×30′), produced by Zodiak Kids Studio UK for CITV; and The Sound Collector (60×5′), a stop-frame animated and live-action series produced by Eagle vs Bat for CITV.

Together with Welsh pubcaster S4C, CITV is also on board Happy (26×7′), the latest preschool show from Pablo producer Paper Owl Films in Northern Ireland.

ITV’s director of digital channels Paul Mortimer said the new UK-made, domestically targeted series it is on board were “only made possible by the fund.”

Meanwhile, the previously announced forthcoming Channel 4 animated Christmas special based on Terry Pratchett’s The Abominable Snow Baby, produced by Eagle Eye Drama, will also receive funding from the YACF.

BBC Alba, meanwhile, has made one of its largest investments in children’s content since its inception, with Scottish Gaelic live-action kids’ comedy Triùir aig Trì (Three at 3), produced by Sorbier, receiving support from the YACF.

The full list of projects to receive production funding is available on the BFI website. These join YACF-backed content to have been produced using the fund, such as Teen First Dates on E4 and the preschool series Milo, which launched on Channel 5’s Milkshake! preschool block this week.

The YACF has also awarded development funding to the following projects: documentary Protest, from Awen Productions; sitcom Idris’ Life, from ChorMedia; factual series Asking for a Friend (working title), produced by Billo Studio; drama (Dis)Harmony, produced by Headline Pictures; and comedy drama Ready to Launch, from 276 Productions.

The BFI has confirmed a 10% conversation rate of development award recipients to commissions for the YACF, which is 5% higher than the industry standard. This demonstrates the positive role the YACF development support is playing, it claimed.

Head of fund Jackie Edwards said the YACF is having a positive impact on producers and broadcasters alike.

“We are so overjoyed that, despite the challenges of the past year, we are still continuing to make such a vital contribution to the children’s media landscape. To see all of these new unique and distinctive projects commissioned that speak to public service values and reflect and represent the UK is truly wonderful,” she said.

“We are thrilled that we are achieving a conversion rate of 10% of development to production, showcasing the fund’s use of resources and the value for money within the sector. Public service content is now, more than ever, such a vital resource for young audiences, serving a range of different stories that offer a varied and broader perspective for young minds in the UK, that are free and accessible to all.”

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