Locally made Australian children’s television content decreased by more than 84% between 2019 and 2022, shrinking from 605 hours to just 95 hours, a new report shows.
The drastic decline in local children’s content is recorded in the latest Australian Media and Communications Authority (Acma) report into compliance with Australian commercial free-to-air television content rules.
The report found that all 13 metropolitan and 62 regional television networks met the required quota of a minimum 55% Australian content during viewing time between 6am and midnight on their primary channels.
The three major networks – Seven, Nine and Ten – all exceeded the quota, with 76%, 79% and 71% respectively.
But in 2020 the Coalition government abandoned the quota for children’s free-to-air television, introducing a point system instead to allow more flexibility for commercial broadcasters.
The then communication minister, Paul Fletcher, justified the change at the time, saying most children were now accessing screen content through either the public broadcaster or streaming platforms, not commercial networks.
Children’s local content advocates have highlighted Acma’s findings, saying the weakened Australian content and children’s television standards (ACCTS) framework was responsible for 500 fewer hours of content.
“It shows that, without regulation, commercial platforms won’t make any investment in children,” said Jenny Buckland, the chief executive of the Australian Children’s Television Foundation.
“They’ll focus entirely on the primetime content and content for adults.
“It really means that the ABC and – to some extent NITV – the public broadcasters, have become the main game in town for children’s content.”
The chief executive of Screen Producers Australia, Matthew Deaner, said the Acma findings were “damming evidence of the failure of this framework to provide Australian children with any content that reflects their own lives and their own experiences”.
“The damage done in the changes to the regulatory framework in 2020 are truly coming home to roost,” he told the Guardian.
“[This is] especially true for children, where Australian content available for them has plummeted to an incredible low.”
The peak body which lobbied the previous federal government to loosen the local content quota for children’s television, Free TV Australia, said in a statement the Acma results showed that the commercial networks had “again shot the lights out in delivering Australian content to Australian audiences”.
“We are committed to bringing Australians the great local drama, trusted news, live and free sport and captivating entertainment that they love,” said Free TV’s chief executive, Bridget Fair, in the statement.
In relation to children’s content, Fair said commercial television licensees had exceeded the 250 points of first release Australian programs annually required, the system that replaced children’s content quotas in 2020.
“All metropolitan licensees over-delivered on the annual points quota under the ACCTS, averaging 319 points across the year,” she said.
Deaner said Free TV Australia’s opposition to a 20% reinvestment in local content by its online streaming competitors was further damaging the local industry,
“Commercial broadcasters are failing Australian audiences when it comes to investing in first-release children’s and quality drama content, yet they oppose streaming services being required to provide these,” he said.
