A Better Deal for British Kids

November 2, 2015 , 0

CMF launches campaign to secure funding for children's content at the BBC and beyond.

Sign up in support today.

Consultation has closed on the Government Green Paper on the Future of the BBC (and two Parliamentary reviews into the same issue).  We now move in to a phase in which the DCMS will formulate its ideas for a White Paper.

The Green Paper opened up the idea of ring-fencing BBC Children's budgets while also creating a "contestable fund" to finance further children's production outside the BBC. We have concerns about both these suggestions as they represent 1) undue interference in the Corporation's affairs and 2) we are concerned that the DCMS idea of a contestable fund is one that is financed by top-slicing the Licence Fee.

We rejected both these positions in our response to the DCMS consultation and proposed instead some practical ideas: that the BBC should take a stand on increasing children's and youth budgets for the next ten years and that the government should focus on developing the contestable funding idea from sources other than the Licence Fee.

Now we need your backing to add weight to the campaign.  Please check out our proposals below and click on the support button on our homepage.

Our proposals:

• We support the continued existence of the BBC licence fee.
• We ask the government to stick to its promise to increase the Licence Fee in line with inflation for the next Charter period (10 years from 2017).
• We support the BBC plan to develop the iPlay service and create more content for children over 10, while maintaining support for CBeebies and CBBC.
• We propose that to achieve that, the BBC commits to increasing budgets for children's and youth programming every year for the next Charter period.
• Due to clear market failure, we support the development of a Children's Alternative Fund to stimulate broadcasters and other platforms to commission and carry UK-focused children's content.
• We do not support top-slicing of the Licence Fee to pay for this Fund.
• We call upon the government to commission the necessary research to investigate the viability and scope of an Alternative Fund, and to launch the Fund as a matter of urgency, to provide healthy competition for the BBC and to extend the range of British content available to UK kids.

The more individuals or organisations that sign up in support, the more likely we'll be able to persuade the DCMS to incorporate our practical proposals in the White Paper which will steer the future of the BBC and could have a massive impact on kids' content provision in the UK.

Please pass on this newsletter to others you think might wish to express support.

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