Ofcom report highlights kids TV crisis

Ofcom's report into the future of kids TV has revealed the full extent of the crisis facing the sector.

The report published today shows that the situation faced by the current children's TV market is worse than previously estimated with spend on first-run UK originated programming across all broadcasters down 14% from an estimated £127m in 1998 to £109m in 2006.

This drop in spend is despite an increase in dedicated children's channels in the UK from six to 25.

The increase in children's channels has led to viewer fragmentation with the net result that audiences for individual programmes have fallen.

The top rated children's TV show in 2006 was Newsround, which attracted just over 2 million viewers compared with 10 million for Pinky and Perky in 1976.

The report shows that the biggest loss of spend comes from the commercial public service broadcasters such as ITV, Channel 4 and Five, whose overall spend has more than halved from £60m in 1998 to £27m in 2006.

While total hours of original UK children's programmes have remained stable since 1998, this is mainly down to an increase in hours broadcast by the BBC.

Hours of children's programming broadcast on ITV1 fell by 60% and on Five by 58% during the period.

Pact chief executive John McVay said the report supported the claims that the alliance had been making in its lobbying over the last 18 months. He said: "Thus report shows there is a huge gap between what the public wants and what the market provides."

Other major findings in the report are that while overall children's viewing of television has fallen, the proportion of children watching children's TV has grown from 27% to 30% while children's viewing of adult programming has fallen.

The report also highlighted that parents place high importance on the public service programming for kids, particularly in reflecting the cultural values of the UK.

However fewer than half of parents believe the purposes of public service programming are currently being delivered satisfactorily.

Drama and factual programming for older children and teenagers were areas of particular concern for parents whereas they are relatively happy with provision for pre-school and younger children.

Ofcom will now consult on the findings of the review. The closing date for responses is 20 December this year.

Source: Broadcastnow.co.uk