TVOntario excels at it. ytv does nothing but. Vision tv is starting to do it. Showcase dabbles in it. Global has created a resounding commercial success out of it. And cbc is a respected veteran at it. Kids’ programming for television is nothing new, but the fact that an increasing number of broadcasters – private and public – are angling to get into the market is an indication that something of significance is going on.

Take for example a story that sounds like it could be right out Ripley’s Believe It or Not: word is that American nets, which make heaps of money from kiddie shows and are said to be attempting to label The Flintstones and The Jetsons as educational programming, are showing some genuine interest in alternative programming. Huh?

Adrian Mills, creative head of children’s and youth programming at tvo, says it’s so. ‘There is a tremendous interest in quality children’s programming in the commercial sector. At the moment, quality tv or educational tv is actually a buzz word, especially in the u.s.’

cbc creative head of children’s programming Peter Moss agrees. ‘We’ve been approached aggressively by public and private broadcasters in the States to do coproductions, especially for preschooler programming,’ he says.

Money is not the driving force for this push in the States, it’s a move by the Federal Communications Commission to tighten regulations for children’s programming and to get commercial broadcasters to show more educational tv for kids on a weekly basis. A proposal is before the fcc regarding this issue.

It’s not so simple to make the leap into educational programming, says Mills. ‘Commercial broadcasters don’t generally understand educational tv. Most of what we’ve done at tvo flies in the face of received wisdom when it comes to children’s programming. Commercial broadcasters will tell you that children will not watch something that is educational and that’s not true.’ He says tvo gained as much as a 40% share between six and seven p.m. for kids ages two to 11 on GhostWriter, an alternative program for tweens.

Moss says part of the reason the commercial broadcasters are talking to public broadcasters is to get a handle on the issue of advertising. ‘It’s a difficult area to stumble into,’ he says. ‘You have to have a great deal of sensitivity regarding the advertising that surrounds (these programs).’

All the more difficult since when you’re after the attention of kids, you’re dealing with the media-insatiable, the market-hungry and the merchandising-mad.

Moss thinks if commercial broadcasters got into the educational game, ‘it would be fantastic. We’d be the ones supplying the programs.’

Redundant?

Is it possible that commercial broadcasters providing educational material would, in the long run, make public broadcasters redundant?

Moss says it’s unlikely private broadcasters would do much in the way of alternative programming and a greater call for these shows would only emphasize the need for public broadcasters.

cbc shows a daily average of two and a quarter hours of children’s programming throughout the week (a considerably higher amount than, say, the 20 minutes the bbc, itv and zdf average daily). Moss argues it’s one way a public broadcaster can distinguish its services from those offered by the private sector.

Despite harsh cuts at the Corp, Moss does not see a decrease in cbc’s children’s programming output. ‘Of course the cbc is vulnerable and there are more cuts coming. But I don’t think kids’ tv in any way will be singled out and victimized. It’s just the opposite,’ he says.

Mills argues education doesn’t have to be the death knell for a show as long as it is infused with quality. ‘We know that when we design shows for kids that are high quality and educational they will actually find them and watch them. That’s how we stay competitive.’

Since competition for a public broadcaster is not weighed by revenues, but by gaining loyal audiences, McCabe Mysteries is a key strategy for Mills.

Developed by tvo through extensive research and based on the success of the American-produced GhostWriter, not only does the program cater to the most underserved slice of the children’s programming pie – the seven-to-11 age bracket – but it delivers the essential ingredients of action and a peer (an 11-year-old) as the protagonist.

Mills is keen on this new series, but he says the problem with producing material of this nature, especially for that age group, is the expense. Kids that age have sophisticated tastes, and so production values have to be up to snuff.

Once the pilot was aired to favorable reaction, tvo shopped around for a cofinancier and producer. Negotiations are underway with Atlantis Films and continue with Disney u.k. (which tvo partners with for Bill Nye, the Science Guy) after Disney u.s. was approached but declined.

All this fuss for a series, developed by a public broadcaster that is contending with decreasing funds and a limited audience. What’s the point?

‘I think there is a huge argument that there has to be public programming for children. Without public television you wouldn’t have GhostWriter, Dudley the Dragon, Sesame Street, Polka Dot Door – quality children’s programming. You would only have programming either coming from America or driven by an American commercial agenda.’

Mills says one of the strongest arguments tvo is making to the provincial government to fend off further cuts is the value of the service it provides. ‘Eight hours a day of children’s programming. It’s probably the only network where you can put your child of any age in front of the tv and there will never be anything on there (in the children’s program slots) that offends either parent or child.’

Safe haven

Len Cochrane, president and ceo of Canadian Family Channel, also declares his service a completely safe haven from violence or anything offensive, and he says it’s a key strategy to remain competitive.

Family Channel, a private pay service with about 400,000 subscribers, airs Disney programming to the tune of 60%, 25% Canadian content and 15% of its programming comes from the rest of the world.

The service programs preschool shows for six hours a day, family programming in the early afternoon, and shows geared to the tween market for three hours in the late afternoon. Of all the programs Family airs, Cochrane says at the top of the hit list is The Mickey Mouse Club, a 40-year-old show for tweens.

Does it cut into, for example, ytv’s active pursuit of the tween market? ytv director of programming Kevin Wright says not really. ‘I think they market themselves differently than we do and go for a different audience.’

The hottest tween shows at ytv are ReBoot and Are You Afraid of the Dark?, which gain upwards of 300,000 to 500,000 viewers for a two-plus share of the total audience.

Wright says key to engaging these kids is paying attention to the in-between stage they are at in their maturity. ‘It’s a difficult age because they are no longer kids but they do enjoy a lot of things that go with childhood. We try to appeal to them by mixing elements of fun and humor and innovation.’

Mills isn’t convinced the tween market is such a hot commodity. ‘I don’t think it’s lucrative in the short term. You can make some money back from sales, and for commercial networks you can make money from revenues generated by advertising, but the trouble is commercial broadcasters don’t get sufficient return on that kind of programming.’

Doug Hoover, national vp of programming and promotions for CanWest Global, says it was a three-part realization that convinced him the network could not afford to miss out on tweens.

First came the recognition, a few years ago, that tweens were becoming disenchanted with tv. ‘I realized if we don’t have tweens accustomed to our product and familiar with our icon then we’re really selling ourself short for the future,’ says Hoover.

Number two, he says, was understanding the fact that kids ‘find things first,’ such as Beverly Hills 90210 and X-Files. ‘I became cognizant of the fact that kids are more in tune with their world and they will seek out and find quality programming.’

Finally, it was contending with an increasingly fragmented kids market, created by fox upn, wb, abc, cbs, among others, that put the pressure on networks to market a new time slot – the latter part of Saturday morning – to tweens. Global followed suit earlier this year and Hoover says the strategy is returning excellent results.

Is there an area of children’s programming that is not being satisfied at present? Cochrane says there is, and his application in conjunction with Cinar Films and Nelvana for a new cartoon channel will fill the void.

‘The next step to cover the genre is to have an animation channel in Canada,’ he says, pointing to the success of the Cartoon Network in the States, which consistently lands in third or fourth place in the Nielsen ratings.

Whether such a channel is in fact for children is questionable, although Cochrane says it does fit the mold. Demographics for the Cartoon Network show that about 53% of viewers are below 18 and of the remaining 47%, the majority of those tuned in are between 19 and 29.

In the opinion of Vision president Fil Fraser, the gap in children’s programming is ‘values-based children’s programming,’ which he says is ‘a very serious vacuum in television.’ He believes another problem is preschool programming, traditionally an inexpensive area for production, because of its ‘quick and dirty and cheap’ nature, and he is looking to put together some preschool shows that ‘could be more expensive’ than has traditionally been the case.

Vision has an afternoon slot of tween material but has yet to build a preschool slot. Fraser says they are in the middle of developing their approach by talking to experts in the field as well as experts who work outside tv and with children.

Why is the five-year-old network moving ahead with this now? It’s not because of any trend, says Fraser, but because the resources are now available.

Whether it’s coincidence or not for Vision, there is no arguing the kiddie tv market keeps growing at a substantial rate. As Cochrane points out, you only need to look at producers like Alliance Communications, Atlantis Films, Malofilm and Paragon Entertainment, who are becoming increasingly aggressive in the field. ‘I think the producers are realizing what’s happening as the world is awakening to the fact that there are a whole bunch of children out there that are underserved.’