The canary in the coal mine? Broadcaster Perspectives on Children’s Television

The advent of digital transmission, pay-TV and the internet fragmented the child audience across several platforms, transforming children’s media consumption habits and challenging traditional television business models. It also allowed public service broadcaster the ABC to launch a dedicated children’s channel, ABC3 in 2009, which is the number one television destination for Australian children age 6-15 years. While longstanding content quotas for children’s television remain in force on Australian advertiser funded channels, the ABC3 has become a significant commissioning force in the local production ecology, with shows like Bindi’s Boot camp, Prank Patrol and Dance Academy. Through industry collaboration including interviews with channel heads, television producers and regulators, and analysis of production quotas and funding, this research examines the influence of Australian broadcasters on the quality, genre, and cultural specificity of children’s television in contemporary Australia. Arguments about the desirability of certain forms of cultural content play out in the space of children’s television, thus this research highlights the importance of cultural policies settings in the sustainability of Australian creative industries. The research also considers the role of public service media in communicating ‘Australian-ness’ to the child audience in a globalised media environment dominated by transnational corporations and international trade in television programming