Locally made children’s programming has been virtually abandoned by commercial television networks following the effective abolition of the quota by the Morrison government.
Leading commercial network Seven screened just six-and-a-half hours of children’s television last year and none of it was Australian-made. The unique show was a live action show from New Zealand called Mystic.
In 2021, Nine screened 47 hours of children’s television and Ten screened 40 hours, according to the Australian Communications and Media Authority’s first report since the new standards came into force in January 2021.
Under the old standards, each network had to broadcast a minimum of 260 hours of children’s programming annually, half of which had to be first-run, and a minimum of 130 hours of Australian pre-school programs annually.
Professor Elizabeth Handsley, president of Children and Media Australia, said the results were not surprising. “It was a foregone conclusion that hours of quality children’s television would drop significantly when there was no longer a mandatory quota,” Handsley told Guardian Australia.
“The networks never took their obligations under this quota to heart. It’s also not surprising that there’s a variation in coverage now, as some were even less enthusiastic than others. But it’s still really disappointing , because in a landscape that is flooded with all kinds of content from all kinds of sources, easily accessible and well-curated Australian programming is needed more than ever.
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said the numbers were stark. He committed the government to reviewing Australian content rules as part of Labour’s national cultural policy. The consultation is ongoing and submissions are due by 22 August.
“The findings of the Acma report are concerning and highlight the need for high-quality Australian children’s content to be available across multiple platforms,” Mr Rowland said.
“Our children must grow up with the opportunity to enjoy and learn from locally produced shows. These results reaffirm the need for careful consideration of screen policy settings.”
Nine produced two children’s animated titles, Alice-Miranda and Space Nova, a children’s live action, The Gamers 2037, and a game show, Smashdown!: Search for the GOAT
Ten produced two live-action children’s dramas, Dive Club and The Bureau of Magical Things, and a lifestyle show, Totally Wild.
The outdoor lobby has argued for years that children’s quotas, which dictated that networks must produce a certain number of hours of children’s and preschool programming, were irrelevant and hurt the bottom line. They wanted children’s television to be the responsibility of the national broadcaster.
At the start of the Covid epidemic in 2020, then Communications Minister Paul Fletcher suspended Australian content obligations for the year, which included adult drama, and in January 2021 brought back a diluted scheme that did not include any obligations. to commercial broadcasters to screen Australian children’s programmes.
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Foxtel was one of the main beneficiaries of Fletcher’s reforms, as the requirement to allocate 10% of its drama channels’ revenue to local content was halved.
Streaming services such as Netflix and Disney+ are not subject to Australian content regulation.
Screen Producers Australia warned two years ago that scrapping quotas would see more than half of Australian content disappear from live TV and that the cost of children’s content was particularly small in the context of overall program spending ( 1.34%).
SPA chief executive Matthew Deaner said the market had “collapsed” with the withdrawal of three of the four children’s content curators.
“Now the ABC is the only platform creating local content for a young audience,” Deaner told Guardian Australia. “This has had flow-on effects across the sector for employment, skills development and training, but it is also important for children’s audiences who, while they continue to receive large amounts of international content on services from commercial broadcasters, they are no longer offered Australian stories on these platforms.”
Fletcher, now the shadow minister for the arts, his Fletcher government’s policy, said: “The evidence showed that very few children were watching children’s TV on commercial live TV networks.”