BBC Vision director Jana Bennett has proposed the introduction of film production-style tax breaks to help the UK's struggling children's TV sector.Update: Here's the full text of Jana Bennett's speech.
Ms Bennett's tax breaks proposal was one of three ideas she floated today in a speech at the the youth film festival Showcommotion in Sheffield.
She said that children's TV may need a "significant intervention" to avoid what she calls the current "crisis".
In addition to tax breaks for children's TV production, similar to those enjoyed by the UK film industry, Ms Bennett asked whether all public service broadcasters should be forced to commit to children's production.
Thursday, July 05, 2007
Jana Bennett's proposals for kids' TV
From Ben Dowell in Media Guardian:
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I applaud Jana Bennett's views and her lateral thinking about tax breaks. Children's television is in acute danger; the networks are kicking it around till they lose it. Aside from not honouring their committment to children, it's short-sighted on many levels. A child discovers his or her identity, both national and personal, through the shows he watches and the books he reads. A diet of American kids' sit coms set in the hood and Japanese cartoons just don't fill the bill. Children's television also makes big bucks for its creators. Series can be repeated incessantly for generations of kids, and just look at the export money Dr Who brings into the country. And I know it's not telly but let me mention the words "Harry Potter:" British to the core and as successful as can be. There's a waiting market out there.
ReplyDeleteSome sort of tax breaks might be one answer, as long as it works better than it's done recently for British film. I feel a lobby coming on. But the one thing we can't do is let children's telly quietly disappear!
Gail Renard
Chair of the Guild TV Committee