Will government act to help save children's TV production in UK?

In Media Guardian, Maggie Brown reports on the concerns over the future of children's TV prodicution in the UK.

Last week Ed Vaizey, the new culture minister, pledged to look afresh at a problem that has been debated for years, and which he was made aware of when he was an opposition spokesman.

The subject is of keen importance to the 50 or so production companies involved in entertaining children – with series such as In the Night Garden for CBeebies, or Horrid Henry, for CITV.

Over the past six years funds for new TV series have fallen dramatically – around £50m a year less is being invested now compared with 2004. This is mainly due to ITV's virtual withdrawal from fresh investment, which was worth around £30m a year, and the reliance by US-owned channels, such as Disney and Nickelodeon, on imported popular global series.

Last month the Save Kids TV campaign put its case to the BBC Strategy Review.