Communications regulator ACMA released its latest report on commercial television production last week. Buried in the report was a dramatic factoid: commercial broadcasters have completely stopped making children’s television.
Broken down by category, ACMA showed that the commercial networks had spent the round total of $0 on children’s drama in 2022-23. Adult drama is also on the slide, down to $49 million from $65 million a year earlier. However, spending to produce sport programming rose.
The report shows the devastating consequences of the Coalition’s decision to remove local content quotas for children’s television in 2021. Spooked by the pandemic, and lobbied heavily by the free-to-air networks, then communications minister Paul Fletcher removed the children’s content production requirement at the beginning of 2021. The number of hours of locally produced children’s TV shows has dropped by 80%, from more than 600 hours to less than 100.
Everyone knows about the global phenomenon Bluey. As a result, parents and politicians may think everything is fine in the local children’s production scene. But in many ways, the success of Bluey has papered over looming problems. There isn’t as much local children’s television being made, and in an age of devices, many kids are now being left alone with tablets to surf dubious content on YouTube.
QUT Professor of digital media and cultural studies, Anna Potter, told Crikey that the end of children’s television production by commercial broadcasters was “entirely predictable.”
Without a regulatory requirement to produce such content, Potter explained, there is no commercial incentive to make it.
“If you’re running a commercial broadcaster and you’re only interested in profit, it makes total sense,” she said in a phone interview. Moreover, many of the shows commercial networks were making weren’t popular. “Kids weren’t watching them.”
Potter and her colleagues at QUT have just published a research report that paints a bleak picture of Australian screen content in recent years.
The report shows that Australian television drama is in deep trouble. “Hours of Australian television drama released each year by all channels and services declined significantly between 1999 and 2023,” the authors write. “Adult drama fell from 570 to 300 broadcast hours, and children’s drama more than halved, from 106 to 51 hours.”
Streaming video platforms like Netflix and Stan aren’t doing much children’s content either. With commercial channels getting out of local production altogether, that leaves the ABC as essentially the “only game in town” when it comes to new children’s shows.
But the ABC is rebranding its ME channel to a comedy and light entertainment format, to be called ABC Entertain, in the process slimming down from two kids channels to one (rebranded as ABC Family).
And this week the news broke that storied kids executive Libbie Doherty is leaving the ABC. Doherty’s tenure was notable for greenlighting Bluey, as well as indigenous cult classic Little J and Big Cuz, teen drama First Day, and Beep and Mort. Doherty is one of the best-regarded commissioning executives in the industry, with multiple Emmys, Logies and ACTAs in her cabinet. Losing her will be a hard blow for the network.
Potter questions whether the ME rebrand and the departure of Doherty are connected. “The move to ABC Entertain suggests to me they are reallocating resources away from dedicated children’s content,” she told Crikey.
The ABC remains the biggest commissioner of children’s content in Australia. A spokesperson for the national broadcaster told us that the rebrand is about catering to school-aged children. “They are digital natives who want their content on demand and nearly always through a digital platform.” All ABC ME content will be available on iView. “The ABC is committed to maintaining its spend on children’s content at the levels set at 1 July 2023,” they added.
While the ABC is holding the fort, the broader policy settings for Australian content clearly aren’t working.
The QUT report blames policymakers, who have “overwhelmingly prioritised the interests of screen industries”, but failed to “safeguard supplies of distinctively Australian television drama with cultural and social value for the Australian community.” Paul Fletcher later admitted he had angered the children’s television sector with the quota cull. Presumably the commercial broadcasters were happy, though.
Content quotas are an effective policy tool for governments — as can be seen when they are removed. As Screen Producers Australia’s Matthew Deaner told TV Tonight’s David Knox, “until there is more balanced regulation of commercial broadcasters and the increasingly dominant streaming platforms, nothing will change for Australian child audiences.”
