Alison Stewart, who sits on the board of the Children's Media Foundation, argues it's key to stop the closure of the Young Audiences Content Fund.
"On 21 January 2022, the government announced the closure of the Young Audiences Content Fund. A campaign to have it reinstated has been launched, coordinated by the Children's Media Foundation. Read on to find out about the fund’s work enabling producers to make content that reflects the lives of all children in the UK.
And please join figures like Baroness Floella Benjamin, Lord David Puttnam, Michael Rosen, Russell T Davies and Teletubbies creator Anne Wood in supporting the campaign.
Our children have access to so much media - on tv, online, on mobile apps and games. As parents and carers, we're keen to give them as wide an experience as possible while ensuring that what they watch and interact with is of value to their emotional and cognitive development.
But how much of this content truly reflects the lives and voices of children in the UK? The global streamers, Netflix, Disney+, Amazon and Apple TV, are undeniably popular and they offer high-quality shows, but there is little local content to be found.
The BBC has two wonderful children’s channels, but CBBC and CBeebies can’t commission every great idea that UK producers bring to them. The other free channels in this country are limited in terms of budget and until recently haven’t been able to commission a great deal of children’s content.
That’s where the Young Audiences Content Fund has made a difference. You may not have heard of it – but here’s what you should know.
The Young Audiences Content Fund - its history, its success and why it should continue
- From 2006 to 2017 production of children's content in the UK declined by 40%.
- The Young Audiences Content Fund was created in response to this market failure. It offered up to 50% funding for production and also offered access to development funding.
- The key point to stress is that the YACF was intended to support British content of direct relevance to children and young people in the UK, to portray their stories in various forms, and to hear their voices.
- The fund has supported content now available on the commercial public service channels (CiTV, Channel 5, Channel 4), which were previously limited in commissioning for the younger audience. The fund also enabled broadcasters in Wales and Scotland to commission new content in their own languages.
- The fund has been a powerful regional stimulus and producers have testified that without the fund they would never have been able to get their shows commissioned. These commissions have brought work and opportunities to regional and ethnically diverse communities, both in front of the camera and behind it.
- The fund has been an undoubted success. It supported 55 productions in its first two years - with more to follow in year three - and it financed 144 development projects, significantly extending the range of public service content available to kids and teens. It contributed to the government's “levelling up” agenda, with inclusivity, regional production and vital support for Welsh and other UK languages written into its DNA.
- The government’s decision to close the fund will put us back to where we were three years ago, or in a worse position, with the BBC (with reduced budgets) as practically the only commissioning broadcaster of public service children’s content.
If the Fund closes the losers will be:
- Our children, who will see themselves less and hear fewer of their stories
- Our children's media industry which is currently a strong competitor in international markets and employs considerable numbers of people across the UK
- Society as a whole will be forced to accommodate a generation of disengaged citizens who have grown up on a diet of primarily international media content as the source of their information and inspiration, and who no longer feel a connection to our shared values and beliefs.
Anna Home, Chair of the Children’s Media Foundation, says “The CMF is working with the children’s production community to persuade the government to reverse this short-sighted and wasteful decision. Politicians need to understand this is vital not just for the young but for all of us. It’s about the glue which binds us, and at a time when media can so easily divide and fracture communities, our young people need all the help they can get.”
You can help - click on this link, see who is supporting the campaign and please sign in support."
Alison is a children's media consultant, exec producer and writer. She's a member of BAFTA and sits on the advisory group of the Children's Media Conference.