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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to help (a) support and (b) encourage broadcasters to provide children’s television content.

The Government recognises the unique societal, educational and economic importance of British children’s television and we are taking direct action to support and encourage broadcasters to provide children’s television content to UK audiences.

At the Budget, we announced reform and an increase in the rate of tax relief for animation and children’s TV, which will directly boost the level of financial support for children’s production companies. These reliefs have historically already supported 845 programmes, with a total investment of £1.26 billion.

Through the Media Bill we will introduce a new remit for public service television, which includes the provision of public service children’s programming. This sends a clear signal about the importance the Government places on high value children's programming being available to families across the UK on a free-to-air basis.

We welcome Ofcom’s recent commitment in their Plan of Work 2023/24 to take an in-depth look at how the market is serving the interests of children. This is facilitated by powers we introduced in 2017 for Ofcom to monitor and set criteria for the provision of children’s television. The independent regulator will give us an invaluable insight into the challenges faced by the children’s television industry right now and this will be key in helping us and industry consider where further work is needed.

Children’s television was also chosen to pilot contestable funding, which has supported more than 280 hours of new content with a direct investment of £44.1 million. The British Film Institute published an independent evaluation of the Young Audiences Content Fund in December 2022. The Government is conducting an assessment of the contestable funding model to consider its impact and the long-term sustainability of this kind of funding. The potential for further investment will be considered against that assessment and future public service broadcasting needs.