ABC doing ‘all the heavy lifting’ as commercial networks abandon local kids’ TV drama

Advocates have called on the Australian government to increase ABC and SBS funding, specifically for independently produced children’s scripted content. Photograph: Benjamin Crone/Alamy

Australian commercial television networks have all but given up on creating local children’s drama, advocates say, with just $1.75m spent on the genre across all commercial free-to-air networks in 2023-24.

But that’s $1.75m more than the previous year, according to the latest report card by the communications regulator, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (Acma).