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Series 2
more easily than if it is scheduled
in amongst a whole lot of adult
shows but broadcasters often say
“It is only on our digital channel
now and we can’t pay the same
amount for it”. The key issues at
the moment are finding new
models for funding content and
looking at how children’s content
and the development of it can be
supported across other platforms.
How could kids’ TV be even better?
There is always room for better
programmes. As it is becoming
harder and harder to finance good
quality children’s content we see a
great many co‐productions. And
whilst that can result in great
programmes, it tends to favour
animation over drama because it’s
easier to produce, and the result
can sometimes be a little bland.
There is also a certain domination
of children’s TV by the big global
players like Disney and
Nickelodeon. They make
wonderful and very successful
programmes for children but it
becomes harder for more
independent and culture‐specific
programmes to do well.
What could we do better? I’d
love to see programmes for
example that look at children
growing up Muslim in Australia. It
is very hard to get a comedy or
good drama about that subject
matter commissioned and financed.
There is a trend in adult
programming for shorter, really
high quality series like
Homeland
or
The Sopranos
, and I think children’s
content might go down that path as
well. There are more opportunities
now for quirky and different
programming to come through
because of the existence of
platforms like Netflix and other
online services. Content makers
will avoid broadcasters as
gatekeepers and speak directly to
children. There will be more hits
from independent producers.
Do you have international co-
productions lined up?
Not in terms of formal co‐
productions but we usually need an
international pre‐sale and so we
work quite a bit with the BBC or
with the German broadcasters, ZDF
in particular. We have been
involved in a pre‐school project
recently with Australian company
Beyond Screen Production and
ABC Australia and CCTV in China.
Is kids’ TV a driving force for change?
It can be a positive and a negative.
Children’s TV can be a real eye‐
opener for children and convey
very positive things about gender
and body image and the
environment. It can actually drive
change – for example
Sesame
Workshop
with its HIV positive
Muppet. But kids’ TV shouldn’t
always have to stagger under the
burden of having to be worthy.
What are your current priorities?
We are looking at the feasibility of
developing an education channel
for schools in Australia which
would provide access to all of our
content and an online forum for
teachers. Internet distribution
makes it possible now to do
something exciting for schools and
that is particularly important in
Australia, such a big but sparsely
populated country. The other
priority is finding new ways to
distribute our programmes online,
and that’s exciting because it’s a
more direct route to the audience.
The major platform for kids’
content in Australia is ABC3 and
everything we are doing is for ABC.
If I had a magic wand – and this is a
total fantasy – I would have all the
commercial broadcasters talking to
each other and collaborating to
establish a commercial children’s
service that really gave the ABC
strong competition. Competition
drives quality up. It amazes me
how much money the commercial
broadcasters spend on breakfast TV
which has pretty small audiences,
and then they talk about the kids
audience not being worthwhile. To
me gaining the kids audience
would be a more valuable
investment possibly than breakfast
TV – if they don’t have young
people watching them, they will
lose them.
Jenny Buckland, thank you.
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THE CHANNEL
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ISSUE 1 2014
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19
