BBC urged to increase children's funding

[dutchman]

The Save Kids' TV campaign group has made a formal submission to the BBC Trust arguing that more funding should be allocated to the corporation's children's content.

Published in March, BBC director general Mark Thompson's strategy review has recommended an extra £10m a year to be allocated to BBC Children's. The review is currently under public consultation at the Trust.

In a letter to Trust chairman Sir Michael Lyons, Save Kids' TV chair Anna Home expressed concern that £10m is simply not enough to safeguard quality output.

She argued that the figure represents less than 2% of the £600m Thompson has claimed would be reallocated to produce "high quality" content following the proposed changes.

Save Kids' TV believes that a bigger increase in children's output could be funded by cutting the amount the BBC spends on imported content from the US.

Thompson's strategy review proposed a 20% reduction in spending on imports, but the group believes that he can go much further than that.

Holmes, who was previously controller of BBC Children's, said that UK-produced children's programming is facing a "well-documented crisis".

Recent research by media regulator Ofcom has indicated that less than 1% of programming on UK children's channels is British-made.

In her letter to Lyons, Home also quoted Ofcom chair Colette Bowe as saying that Britain is "sleepwalking into a situation where we do not have UK-generated content of a high quality for our kids".

"The BBC's own research, as well as Ofcom's, shows that parents strongly support having UK children's programming on the trusted, advertising-free services of the BBC," said Home.

"However, BBC management proposes an increase of only £10m a year in the budget for children's content - less than 2% of its total £600m re-prioritisation proposals.

"We call on the BBC Trust to ensure the BBC genuinely prioritises UK children's content, and provides a significant financial commitment over the long term.

"To fund a substantial increase, the BBC could reduce imports such as Hollywood movies, over and above management's modest proposal of a 20% cut. This would free up to £100m a year for British content, of which children's should be a priority."

Yesterday, the Trust issued revised service licences for the BBC, including an £8.5m increase in budget for BBC Children's as recommended by its service review last year.

[dutchman]

Save Kids' TV believes that a bigger increase in children's output could be funded by cutting the amount the BBC spends on imported content from the US.

I doubt that very much as the imported content would have to be replaced by home grown programmes which are a lot more expensive to make on a per hour basis. In any case the BBC doesn't rely on imported programmes nearly as much as ITV, Sky or Virgin cable.