Issues In Australian Children's Television

Screen Australia has released new research looking at how children engage with screen content and the challenges involved in financing, producing and scheduling children’s programs...

The report demonstrates that Australian children are discerning television viewers, who want to watch content specifically made for them – particularly drama – but children’s content production in Australia is coming under increasing pressure from scheduling and financing issues.

Child’s Play: Issues in Australian Children’s Television explores the viewing attitudes and behaviours of children, the broadcasters’ programming strategies and on-air promotion and the financing and production of children’s content.

“The increase in distribution points for children’s content is placing additional pressure on Australian children’s content producers, as fragmenting audiences result in lower licence fees and producers are increasingly competing against well-resourced international children’s television brands with high production values and extensive multi-platform offerings” said ACTF CEO Jenny Buckland.

The success of first release drama such as Dance Academy on the ABC shows the reach and engagement Australian content can achieve, but on the commercial networks, Australian children’s drama is not experiencing the same type of success, due to less than optimal scheduling and promotion – which the research highlights is key to the broadcast success of the program.

Download the Screen Australia report:
Child’s Play: Issues in Australian Children’s Television (pdf 2MB)