Why children's television has to rely on merchandising dealsAs the BBC celebrates 60 years of television shows for children,
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ThE MaStEr
2010-09-27 -
Why children's television has to rely on merchandising dealsAs the BBC celebrates 60 years of television shows for children, the genre faces a funding dilemma
In the Night Garden, currently the BBC's biggest children's brand. Photograph: BBC
Once upon a time, 60 years ago, the BBC children's department was born. From the appointment of Freda Lingstrom in 1950, the department aired the first "children's variety programme", Whirlygig, and continued to flourish with Bill and Ben the Flowerpot Men, Crackerjack and the ground-breaking Grange Hill.
Anniversary celebrations take place in a radically different world. Today there are 31 digital children's TV channels and related merchandise is a multi-million pound business. With other broadcasters increasingly avoiding the genre for more ad-friendly fare, one of the leading children's programmes, Milkshake, has just been taken over by the same company that makes adult TV shows such as Wobbling Whoppers 2. There has been a question mark over the award-winning series since Richard Desmond bought Channel 5 this summer and it emerged that its children's TV shows, such as Peppa Pig, would be produced in the same building as his adult channels.
Junk food advertising
A number of events over the last five years have conspired to squeeze children's television, however. Advertising revenue was affected following the regulator Ofcom's decision in 2006 to ban junk food advertising around children's programmes.
ITV1's commercially driven decision to banish such shows to the digital channel CITV over the last two years and replace them with higher-rating repeats of dramas such as Midsomer Murders has hit the sector – it has lost eight hours a week on a mainstream channel.
Richard Hollis, BBC Worldwide's UK licensing boss, is reasonably upbeat and says it has been a difficult year because of the recession, exchange rates and increased labour prices in the Far East. Yet with parents "reluctant to deny their children", the sector can "transcend difficult times", he believes.
While it is easy to reminisce about gentler times, if you wallow in nostalgia via YouTube you will notice that children's programmes today generally have higher production values, not to mention less wobbly sets. Joe Godwin, BBC director of children's TV, warns: "The golden age thing is psychological. Things have changed. In 1950 when the department started there was Watch with Mother, no BBC2, no weekend children's shows."
He adds: "The ethos in creating BBC Children's [as the department is now called] was to recognise children are different to other viewers, and the ambition was to create a miniature TV schedule to represent all genres." Those founding principles remain but Godwin points out: "What's changed is the amount of money we spend on it and the other thing is the quality. Children watch a lot of primetime stuff and family entertainment – you can't get away with cardboard props any more. I think we're still doing the same thing with the same ethos but doing it better."
The BBC has two dedicated digital children's channels, CBeebies (for 0-6 year olds) and CBBC (for older children), which have around 4.5 million and 2.9 million weekly viewers, respectively.
Many of its shows are made by independent producers, rather than in-house, after the "window of creative competition" was introduced four years ago to open up slots to non-BBC companies – which inevitably led to staff cuts in BBC Children's.
Perhaps the biggest change, according to industry experts, is that most companies that focus on making children's shows have to bring in co-production cash or, increasingly, rely on revenue from licensing. Andrew Carley, the head of licensing at Entertainment One, which distributes Peppa Pig and Ben and Holly's Little Kingdom, says the market has changed within the last three to five years because of the advertising downturn and economic climate. "Licensing is a very significant part of television as a whole. When we're looking at new shows, it can be difficult to work out how to finance them if there's not the licensing component because there's so little money from the broadcasters."
While they may be bad news for parents who dread the "pester power" factor, DVDs, books, branded clothes and, above all, toys can ensure a programme's future. Although the figure for children's merchandising is not split out, the global TV brand licensing industry is worth $191bn.
Carley says: "The licensing can almost be the crux of justifying new episodes. It can justify a new series. You could argue that that's slightly worrying. But it's the reality of the market." CBeebies and CBBC cost about £26m and £50m a year. He adds: "In the short term I don't see anything changing. I see the reliance on licensing growing as advertising revenue falls."
Peppa Pig is shown in about 180 countries. It has earned £100m in retail sales in the UK since it was launched by its creators, Neville Astley and Mark Baker, in 2005, and Carley reckons that will rise to £150m. However, he warns that trying to make a show "vanilla-like" so it ticks all the right boxes to make it a brand that can be easily licensed can result in a flop.
Although In the Night Garden is the BBC's biggest current children's brand, its creator, Andrew Davenport, says the show reflects the "Reithian principles of inform, educate and entertain." Made by the independent production company Ragdoll, it has cost £14.5m for 100 half-hour episodes, making it the most expensive children's programme commissioned and co-funded by the BBC. It is now coming to an end.
Davenport says that "as far as it goes in that format that's it for Night Garden", but there may be "some other types of broadcast", such as TV one-offs. Already about 1m Night Garden DVDs have been sold and 4m toys, with a dancing Igglepiggle doll crowned the must-have toy of 2007. Has the show been a victim of its own success?
Davenport is the keynote speaker this week at the licensing conference Brand Licensing Europe 2010, and makes no apologies for the popularity of Night Garden's spin-offs, which now include an acclaimed live show.
Hollis says it was the popularity of the children's drama Doctor Who that led to the creation of a licensing outfit for BBC shows "on the back of the Dalek craze" – the first toys were Daleks. "People think it's new. But we've had successful licensing for years. It was set up in 1964. In fact there have been licensed products since Watch with Mother and Bill and Ben in the 1950s. The secret is to get the essence of a programme into the product."
Increasing investment
At Channel 5, Desmond has hinted at increasing investment in children's programmes and Carley says: "As far as we are concerned they are committed to it and to Peppa and Ben and Holly." Both shows are in the middle of contracts with the broadcaster. Carley will not reveal how long they have to run but 78 episodes of Peppa Pig – three series' worth – have already aired and 209 will have been delivered to Channel 5 by 2012.
Although a window on one of the main channels is usually key to ensuring that buyers continue to snap up brand-related merchandise, the internet has changed the way children consume TV. Witness the success of Club Penguin, Disney's online game and community.
Amid the turbulence in children's television, there is some good news. The BBC's strategic review, unveiled earlier this year, announced that it will increase its budget for UK-produced programming for children by £10m a year from 2013.
Meanwhile the BBC children's department is about to begin a new chapter in Salford at the £600m MediaCity:UK. Godwin, who is moving to Salford, says: "It's hard for some people who aren't able to move, but I think that from the audience's point of view the move to Salford will be a wholly positive experience. It gives us a real opportunity to reinvent our tone of voice and work with new partners."
But, with just 31% of the children's department choosing to move, the knock-on effect of such a loss of experience is yet to be felt.
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ThE MaStEr
2010-09-27 -
Why children's television has to rely on merchandising dealsAs the BBC celebrates 60 years of television shows for children, the genre faces a funding dilemma
In the Night Garden, currently the BBC's biggest children's brand. Photograph: BBC
Once upon a time, 60 years ago, the BBC children's department was born. From the appointment of Freda Lingstrom in 1950, the department aired the first "children's variety programme", Whirlygig, and continued to flourish with Bill and Ben the Flowerpot Men, Crackerjack and the ground-breaking Grange Hill.
Anniversary celebrations take place in a radically different world. Today there are 31 digital children's TV channels and related merchandise is a multi-million pound business. With other broadcasters increasingly avoiding the genre for more ad-friendly fare, one of the leading children's programmes, Milkshake, has just been taken over by the same company that makes adult TV shows such as Wobbling Whoppers 2. There has been a question mark over the award-winning series since Richard Desmond bought Channel 5 this summer and it emerged that its children's TV shows, such as Peppa Pig, would be produced in the same building as his adult channels.
Junk food advertising
A number of events over the last five years have conspired to squeeze children's television, however. Advertising revenue was affected following the regulator Ofcom's decision in 2006 to ban junk food advertising around children's programmes.
ITV1's commercially driven decision to banish such shows to the digital channel CITV over the last two years and replace them with higher-rating repeats of dramas such as Midsomer Murders has hit the sector – it has lost eight hours a week on a mainstream channel.
Richard Hollis, BBC Worldwide's UK licensing boss, is reasonably upbeat and says it has been a difficult year because of the recession, exchange rates and increased labour prices in the Far East. Yet with parents "reluctant to deny their children", the sector can "transcend difficult times", he believes.
While it is easy to reminisce about gentler times, if you wallow in nostalgia via YouTube you will notice that children's programmes today generally have higher production values, not to mention less wobbly sets. Joe Godwin, BBC director of children's TV, warns: "The golden age thing is psychological. Things have changed. In 1950 when the department started there was Watch with Mother, no BBC2, no weekend children's shows."
He adds: "The ethos in creating BBC Children's [as the department is now called] was to recognise children are different to other viewers, and the ambition was to create a miniature TV schedule to represent all genres." Those founding principles remain but Godwin points out: "What's changed is the amount of money we spend on it and the other thing is the quality. Children watch a lot of primetime stuff and family entertainment – you can't get away with cardboard props any more. I think we're still doing the same thing with the same ethos but doing it better."
The BBC has two dedicated digital children's channels, CBeebies (for 0-6 year olds) and CBBC (for older children), which have around 4.5 million and 2.9 million weekly viewers, respectively.
Many of its shows are made by independent producers, rather than in-house, after the "window of creative competition" was introduced four years ago to open up slots to non-BBC companies – which inevitably led to staff cuts in BBC Children's.
Perhaps the biggest change, according to industry experts, is that most companies that focus on making children's shows have to bring in co-production cash or, increasingly, rely on revenue from licensing. Andrew Carley, the head of licensing at Entertainment One, which distributes Peppa Pig and Ben and Holly's Little Kingdom, says the market has changed within the last three to five years because of the advertising downturn and economic climate. "Licensing is a very significant part of television as a whole. When we're looking at new shows, it can be difficult to work out how to finance them if there's not the licensing component because there's so little money from the broadcasters."
While they may be bad news for parents who dread the "pester power" factor, DVDs, books, branded clothes and, above all, toys can ensure a programme's future. Although the figure for children's merchandising is not split out, the global TV brand licensing industry is worth $191bn.
Carley says: "The licensing can almost be the crux of justifying new episodes. It can justify a new series. You could argue that that's slightly worrying. But it's the reality of the market." CBeebies and CBBC cost about £26m and £50m a year. He adds: "In the short term I don't see anything changing. I see the reliance on licensing growing as advertising revenue falls."
Peppa Pig is shown in about 180 countries. It has earned £100m in retail sales in the UK since it was launched by its creators, Neville Astley and Mark Baker, in 2005, and Carley reckons that will rise to £150m. However, he warns that trying to make a show "vanilla-like" so it ticks all the right boxes to make it a brand that can be easily licensed can result in a flop.
Although In the Night Garden is the BBC's biggest current children's brand, its creator, Andrew Davenport, says the show reflects the "Reithian principles of inform, educate and entertain." Made by the independent production company Ragdoll, it has cost £14.5m for 100 half-hour episodes, making it the most expensive children's programme commissioned and co-funded by the BBC. It is now coming to an end.
Davenport says that "as far as it goes in that format that's it for Night Garden", but there may be "some other types of broadcast", such as TV one-offs. Already about 1m Night Garden DVDs have been sold and 4m toys, with a dancing Igglepiggle doll crowned the must-have toy of 2007. Has the show been a victim of its own success?
Davenport is the keynote speaker this week at the licensing conference Brand Licensing Europe 2010, and makes no apologies for the popularity of Night Garden's spin-offs, which now include an acclaimed live show.
Hollis says it was the popularity of the children's drama Doctor Who that led to the creation of a licensing outfit for BBC shows "on the back of the Dalek craze" – the first toys were Daleks. "People think it's new. But we've had successful licensing for years. It was set up in 1964. In fact there have been licensed products since Watch with Mother and Bill and Ben in the 1950s. The secret is to get the essence of a programme into the product."
Increasing investment
At Channel 5, Desmond has hinted at increasing investment in children's programmes and Carley says: "As far as we are concerned they are committed to it and to Peppa and Ben and Holly." Both shows are in the middle of contracts with the broadcaster. Carley will not reveal how long they have to run but 78 episodes of Peppa Pig – three series' worth – have already aired and 209 will have been delivered to Channel 5 by 2012.
Although a window on one of the main channels is usually key to ensuring that buyers continue to snap up brand-related merchandise, the internet has changed the way children consume TV. Witness the success of Club Penguin, Disney's online game and community.
Amid the turbulence in children's television, there is some good news. The BBC's strategic review, unveiled earlier this year, announced that it will increase its budget for UK-produced programming for children by £10m a year from 2013.
Meanwhile the BBC children's department is about to begin a new chapter in Salford at the £600m MediaCity:UK. Godwin, who is moving to Salford, says: "It's hard for some people who aren't able to move, but I think that from the audience's point of view the move to Salford will be a wholly positive experience. It gives us a real opportunity to reinvent our tone of voice and work with new partners."
But, with just 31% of the children's department choosing to move, the knock-on effect of such a loss of experience is yet to be felt.
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