Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what plans her Department has to support children’s television industry after the closure of the Youth Audience Content Fund.

The UK Government is committed to ensuring that young listeners and viewers benefit from a modern system of public service broadcasting (PSB) that remains relevant and can continue to meet the needs of UK audiences in the future. That is why we are conducting a strategic review of PSB – drawing on the work of Ofcom, the Select Committees in both Houses of Parliament, and the government’s own expert PSB Advisory Panel – to work out how best to achieve this in light of the challenges the sector is currently facing.

The three-year pilot Young Audiences Content Fund was designed to test a new way of financing public service TV content. A full evaluation of the pilot Fund will take place following its conclusion to determine its impact on the children’s television industry and the provision and plurality of public service content for young audiences across the UK. The potential of further investment of public funding will be assessed against the Fund evaluation and alongside future public service broadcasting needs.