The Australian Children’s Content Summit (ACCS) is over for another year and these were some of Wide Eye’s observations:
Summit Attendance and Key Partners
This was the 3rd year of the ACCS and all the major funding partners of children’s TV production in Australia were in attendance – ABC TV, NITV, Screen Australia, Australian Children’s Television Foundation and all the State Funding organisations from NSW, Qld, SA, Tas, NT, Vic & WA.
In contrast, the commercial Australian TV broadcasters Seven, Ten, and the American children’s broadcasters Cartoon Network, Disney & Nickelodeon were not to be seen anywhere and Channel 9 had just the one person from their Queensland office who came with no money but has an empty studio up the road in Brisbane for hire – empty because along with Seven & Ten, Australia’s three commercial TV broadcasters no longer make Australian children’s shows for Australian kids.
The Emergence of YouTube
But YouTube was there, with Sabine Zonderland, Head Content APAC, being front & centre, cementing YouTube’s place as Australia’s alternative free to air children’s broadcast platform to the ABC with their ABC Kids & Family channels and ABC iView.
In just two short years at ACCS, YouTube has gone from being a marketing after thought for the Australian producers of traditional long form TV shows for children, to being one of the two main free to air outlets for their shows.
And not only was the YouTube channel in the room, but so were many of the Australian YouTube creators & operators of YouTube children’s channels, both onstage giving presentations and in the audience sitting equally alongside other children’s TV producers of Australian content.
Addressing the Funding Crisis
It was refreshing to see a panel of the heavyweights of Australian children’s TV production – peak industry body Screen Producers Australia (SPA) along with Cheeky Little Media, Flying Bark, Shiff Productions & event organiser SLR Productions – turn their focus on how making shows for YouTube first broadcast can equally qualify for the government funding opportunities currently applying to shows once made for the free to air commercial broadcasters in Australia.
I believe the next 12 months will see significant progress towards improving the clarification of Federal Government funding through the Screen Australia guidelines so shows being produced for YouTube first will, with a good level of certainty, receive the Federal government funding & rebates intended to promote the production of quality Australian children’s TV shows.
Other suggestions coming from Australian children’s TV producers to help the funding crisis facing the industry were, one: argue for an increase to the Federal Government offset rebate from its current 30% rate to a 40% rate which Australian feature films already receive, and, two; to regulate the ABC & NITV to pay higher licence fees for children’s TV content and, three; for the government to provide ongoing financial assistance to producers to enable them to pay for the cost of ongoing content management that is essential on digital platforms once their programs have been launched.
International Presence and Moonbug
Also in attendance at ACCS were a number of executives from international broadcasters including two public broadcasters; Kate Moreton from Children’s BBC and Marie McCann from CBC in Canada, along with Tyler Martin from ITV in the UK, Craig Hunter from Amazon Kids, Melissa Lim from Warner Bros Discovery and Christina Reynolds from Apple TV+.
There was also an action packed surprise visit from Moonbug UK, owners of Cocomelon, Blippi & many other children’s YouTube channels, who arrived with a clear plan to scoop up some music management rights from the owners of the major Australian children’s YouTube channels in attendance.
It was fascinating to watch the behind the scenes meetings going on between the three senior managers from Moonbug and the A-team of Aussie children’s YouTube channels including Bounce Patrol, The Mik Maks, The Wiggles, Lah-Lah, Ms Moni, Emma Memma and a number of others.
Time will tell if the Moonbug raid was successful or not but I do know that our Australian YouTubers are well aware of what they are doing and are also happy to hunt in a pack when it suits them – Moonbug will know they have been in an negotiation by the time this all plays out.
Glimmers of Optimism
The highlight of this year’s ACCS, helped no doubt by the outstanding weather, was to see a little optimism from the battle-hardened, war-torn but resilient bunch of Australian children’s TV producers who are struggling through difficult times, seeing glimmers of green shoots with the emergence of YouTube being a genuine second broadcast platform to compete or complement with what the ABC continues to achieve in Australia.
Wide Eyes News from the Tube is written by a leading industry expert and is focused on providing a quick snapshot of the best opportunities in the television & animation market.
This article also appeared in Edition 51 of The Bugg Report Magazine
