Television for the 8 to 16 age group

[Canopus]

What do you think?

[Karen A]

Hi.I think that a dramatic reduction in the number of programmes being comissioned due to funding cut backs has impacted the quality and availability of TV for this age group.Karen.

[chris54]

I have no idea as my son who is 9 next week does not really watch television.

[Suze]

I,ve 2 kids in this category , and both watch tv that is to do with their interests.My son (asd) watches all the national geographic channels , top gear,aircraft investigators and stuff like that.My daughter just watches the country channel for horsey stuff.All are only found on satellite tv.

[Emma_74]

I dont think my boys know what normal tv is!!

the thing that they are interested in are only on sky

[Princess]

Well i am 17 and for me its dvds, and youtube

 

and video games

Edited April 20, 2009 by Princess

[Canopus]

I dont think my boys know what normal tv is!!

the thing that they are interested in are only on sky

 

I,ve 2 kids in this category , and both watch tv that is to do with their interests.My son (asd) watches all the national geographic channels , top gear,aircraft investigators and stuff like that.My daughter just watches the country channel for horsey stuff.All are only found on satellite tv.

 

Several kids and their parents have told me that most programmes appealing to the 8 to 16 age group are only available on satellite or cable TV. They think that terrestrial TV offers very little for the 8 to 16 age group either as age specific programmes or appealing adult programmes. Quality factual programmes on terrestrial are quite scarce nowadays as channels have shifted towards soaps and populist adult entertainment like Big Brother. Most documentaries and science programmes are only available on satellite or cable channels such as Discovery and National Geographic.

 

Well i am 17 and for me its dvds, and youtube

 

and video games

 

I included that option because I have encountered a number of kids who very rarely watch broadcast TV but regularly watch DVDs or YouTube and play video games. All but one of them live in a house that only has terrestrial TV so there could be a possibility that very few programmes on terrestrial appeal to them.

 

Hi.I think that a dramatic reduction in the number of programmes being comissioned due to funding cut backs has impacted the quality and availability of TV for this age group.Karen.

 

The simple reason for the demise is because it doesn't produce enough revenue for the broadcasters. ITV (until recently the UK’s second largest kids’ TV commissioner) has almost completely ceased children’s production. They have closed their internal production department, stripped all the kids’ airtime from ITV1 except for a couple of hours on the weekend, and spend nothing like the £35 million which supported children’s production on ITV only a few years ago.

 

Channel 4 no longer makes programmes for young children and despite aspirations to cater for the 10+ demographic, their funding is far from assured. Even their pilot plans have been recently cut back by some 60%.

 

Channel FIVE has cut back their children’s programming so that they now only provide programmes for younger children, having abandoned the documentaries and factual programmes which characterised their Shake brand.

 

The government's ban on advertising junk food has delivered a heavy blow to the prospects of children's programming in these channels because it has destroyed an important source of revenue. I was discussing the issue with somebody who works for Meridian who told me that CITV is a millstone around ITV's neck because it is so unprofitable. The situation wouldn't be so bad if ITV as a whole company was very profitable and could afford to subsidise CITV, but ITV is a struggling company that may be in a very precarious position after analogue is switched off. A few years ago there was talk about CITV showing repeats of very attractive programmes in order to capture some of the audience lost to satellite channels. After the junkfood advertising ban this project was abandoned.

 

The BBC has a near monopoly on children's programme production for terrestrial. They have outlasted ITV, Channel 4, and Channel 5 because the BBC is funded from a TV licence rather than advertising. However, the BBC has imposed budget cuts which will affect the range of programmes it can produce for children.

[Mandapanda]

My youngest who is 12 has grown out of most of the CBBC and CITV programmes. He likes factual adult programmes (eg about natural history, dinosaurs, etc), but not soaps or Big Brother type progs. We only have terrestrial and Freeview. He likes Brainiac on Sky3 and Top Gear which is on BBC2 and repeated on Dave. He loves Heroes and is following the complex story better than me!! He has watched almost every DVD in the house and local library.