Children's TV

Colin Williams, Creative Director of Sixteen South, said he realised early on the benefits of partnering with other studios in different parts of the world to secure funding for getting projects off the ground.

Several guests at an event organised by RTS Northern Ireland – in partnership with the UK Department for Business and Trade (DBT) within its UK Export Academy – said they couldn’t recall a worse time for commissions, describing the current climate in the indie sector as a “drought”.

The series, aimed at five to seven-year-olds but beloved by all ages, documents the misadventures of a Blue Heeler puppy living in Brisbane, Australia.

Bluey lives with her mum, dad, and little sister Bingo, and their penchant for fun drags the whole neighbourhood (made up of a variety of dog breeds) into their energetic games.

ITVX Kids will launch over the 2023 summer school holidays and promises more kids content than ever before, with a range of titles wide enough to appeal to both school age and pre-school age children.

The closure of CITV, which currently broadcasts daily from 6am-9pm, appears to be part of a growing industry trend of cutting linear kids' programming. In May 2022, the BBC announced its plans to cut CBBC’s linear channel.

Parents, rejoice! From 13 February, there will be another televisual offering to help keep the little ones occupied. Sky Kids is a 24-hour, ad-free, linear-TV channel aimed at the under-sevens. Going head-to-head with CBeebies with shows that it promises will be entertaining and educational, the channel will be ­available automatically to those who subscribe to the £9.99 a month Now Entertainment package or the £6 a month Sky Kids package.

Children are the canaries in the mine, picking things up first,” obser­ved Greg Childs, director of the Children’s Media Foundation, as he introduced an RTS debate on how children’s TV and content movers and shakers are adapting to the fact that young people have migrated online.

An optimistic tone was established from the start by Alice Webb, the outgoing head of BBC Children’s and ­Education, who asserted: “Yes, the kids are absolutely fine. They have more choice than they ever had. They are exercising choice and are after things that interest them.

In March 2018, CBeebies pulled off a spectacular staging of The Tempest, a pacy version that preserved all the best “O brave new world” lines, while gripping its audience of under-sevens.

"Slime is officially dead,” declares Emma Scott, CEO of Beano Studios. As the custodian of one of Britain’s most beloved brands, she is responsible for bringing the Beano brand into the 21st century.

The Beano comic is still profitable, she points out, although the 35,000 copies it sells each week are a far cry from the 2 million copies it sold during its heyday in the 1950s.

CBBC’s Horrible Histories was the subject of RTS London’s latest production focus in early November – with a team of creatives from producers Lion Television explaining how they put together the award-winning show.

The move, said BBC Director-General Tony Hall, reaffirmed the Corporation’s “commitment to our youngest audiences,” putting “children’s [programming] front and centre throughout the charter renewal process.”

The expanded budget will fund an enhanced online offering for children, as well as maintaining current children’s programming on the BBC’s children’s television channels, CBeebies and CBBC.

The new content includes a modern animated series inspired by One Hundred and One Dalmatians, an animated space comedy, a dinosaur adventure series, and the return of hit shows DuckTales and Star Vs The Forces of Evil.

101 Dalmation Street, Disney Channel

A brand new eleven-part series will air next year on Disney Channel based on the Dodie Smith novel and Walt Disney film One Hundred and One Dalmatians.