Session Notes

Gary Pope, Partner, Kids Industries.

Delivered some study undertaken for the Showco conference. Ask questions about should advertising junk food be in childrens media—83% said no. Asked if they were aware there might be a ban about this—48% said no.

What about the impact, another words the UK childrens media will be hit, even loss of indigenous programming—97% said no. Plus, should the government compensate producer—51% said no.

Anne Brogan, Controller, ITV Production, Kids.

What is happening to Granada Kids is systematic to the whole kids industry. This industry cares passionately about making programming for kids and must do something about this issue. OFCOM has failed to uphold to ensure a diverse range of childrens programming. They need to set aside money for kids TV.

The commercial pressures are across all programme creators. Quotas are fringe issues—we need to get to the heart of the industry motivations.

Over £30 million pounds annually went into original childrens media.

Billy Macqueen, Managing Director, Darrall Macqueen.

Everyone is looking for a villain—the real issue is that the government insisted for a ceiling on the advertising fees. It is the management interest that this issue have come up—it legitimises there exit (commercially) from terrestrial.

It's easier to protect childrens media on the BBC2 site.

Howard Litton, SVP, General Manager & Director of Channels, Nickelodeon UK.

Was shocked by the results by not surprised. The industry has been terrible at getting the problem out there. Where is the accountability? OFCOM don't care about kids and it's a shame. Made some provocative remarks about the other programmers but you had to be there :-)

Multi-channel programming will benefit from the death of ITV from capitalising from the newly found ad revenue. Quotas, if enforced by the government, does not touch on quality.

Over £10 million pounds annually went into original childrens media.

Anne Gilchrist, Creative Director, CBBC.

Looking at 'fewer', 'bigger', 'better' due to survival in the marketplace. Quality is still a driving factor. If scheduling at ITV gets more aggressive, it will have an impact on BBC. The industry needs to state the case and outline the value in what we are doing.

There is a migration from BBC1 to BBC2 but keeping it in the terrestrial channels is extremely important. We need something to keep against like CiTV.

Jonathan Boseley, Executive Director, Programming, Disney Channel UK, Scandinavia, Central and Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

There hasn't been a public debate about the impact on this issue. There is no regulatory push-back. The discussion is not being had with all parties even though everyone is in it.

Focus of Disney channel focusses on ploughing more money back into original programming.

Over £2 million pounds annually went into original childrens media.

Ended with a discussion on stage and also questions from the audience.

Op Ed: the industry is scared. The impact of the decision from OFCOM to ban the ads for junk food on childrens media is going to be bigger than BIG. All broadcasters are going to be affected by this decision. It's also going to roll into other media platforms such as radio, video, mobiles etc.

One of the runners, Henry, read sopmething out that he wrote which got a rapturious applause. Basically, here was a young man who wanted to go into childrens media and is scared there won't be one to go into. One 'aspriational-newbie' and his short speech summed up the feelings of the whole room of seasoned professionals.

At the 'wrap-up' it was proposed the Showco create a sub-committee to formulate a public event to really raise the issue publicly. One of the audience members suggested 'going black' from all the broadcasters with a caption saying 'this is what is going to happen if this ban goes ahead'.

As an outsider looking in, there was a sense of desperation and also some questions about the real impact of such a strategy, only because the consultation period with OFCOM has come and gone. However, here is the start of something. I felt a ground-swell of support and motivation to 'fight'.

Watch this space!

I am attending and participating in the Showcomotion Children's Media Conference, in Sheffield and blogging the event for the next two days.