Channel 5's Milkshake 'Good for kids'

From Maggie Brown for Media Guardian.

Milkshake, Channel Five's brand for the under fives, provides a major boost to the children's TV production industry in Britain, according to a new report.

Research consultancy Perspective found that Five's £6m-a-year investment provided a £15.6m boost to the British production sector – two-and-a-half times the amount invested.

The report says this is because of the flexible way the budget is used. It is stretched across 18 series a year, and in half the cases the money only buys a small 10%-15% stake in the production – enough to get the project started or made to Five's requirements.