With Canada’s leading kids’ network, ytv, celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, and the growing popularity of recently launched cartoon specialty channel Teletoon and preschool channel Treehouse tv, the competition for kids’ programming has kicked into high gear. And how are Canadian public broadcasters, the longtime champions of noncommercial, educational kids’ programming, faring in this heated battle?

‘That sort of fragmentation puts increased pressure on us to maintain the audience numbers,’ says Adrian Mills, cbc’s creative head of children’s, youth and daytime. ‘As there’s more choice for children, it’s easier for them to move to other networks.’

The cbc has added an extra hour each weekday of kids’ programming this season, introduced two new CBC Playground hosts who perform on a 3D virtual set, and increased its children’s programming budget (for an undisclosed amount). Mills says that signals a clear priority with the public broadcaster.

Among the new shows on CBC Playground, a hosted programming block for preschoolers that runs from 8:30 a.m. to noon weekdays and from 7:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. Saturdays, are Arthur (Cinar/ wgbh), The Babaloos (Cinar/ France Animation), Rolie Polie Olie (Nelvana) and Noddy (Catalyst Entertainment).

cbc is developing a live-action, heavy effects, medieval techno series with Pacific Motion Pictures in Vancouver. Titled Crusade, the program follows the adventures of two boys and a magic talking sword who set out to save a princess from an evil lord. The bible and scripts for the show, described as ‘Princess Bride meets Star Wars’ is being written by Ron Baird and Kelly Senecal.

For the 1997/98 season, the CBC Playground weekday programming block from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. received a 27% share, up from 22% the previous year. Says cbc spokesperson Ruth Ellen Soles. ‘These things always take time to pick up steam, for the audience to find it.’

The new fall slate of Ontario’s regional public broadcaster, tvontario, which runs 10.5 hours of kids’ programming per day, includes The Adventures of Spot (King Rollo Films), Animal Alphabet (Partridge Films/Adams Wooding Television), Baby Animals (Dorling Kindersley Vision) and MAXimum Dimension (Heartland Motion Pictures/ Owl/SDA Productions).

While tvo won’t disclose its children’s programming budget, the provincial government committed $48 million to the April 1, 1998 to March 31, 1999 operating budget for tvo and tfo, its French sister station. However, the network has to rely on government funding, and recently suffered a series of budget cuts.

Despite that, ‘we do very, very well in this market,’ says Pat Ellingson, head of children’s programming at tvo.

For example, tvo’s weekday afternoon programming block, Crawl Space, which airs from 3:30 p.m. to 7 p.m., and is targeted at two- to 11-year-olds, gets a 30% share of the market.

‘What we can’t do from that, as the privates can,’ Ellingson comments, ‘is turn that into commercial dollars.’

That calls for strategy. ‘In the programming area,’ says Ellingson, ‘it’s trying to buy right, buy smart, buy early enough so that you can be the broadcaster that gets there first, and some of it is getting there first.’