Children’s television in transition: policies, platforms and production

Abstract

While the internet has facilitated a proliferation in children’s media offerings and platforms, television remains the dominant medium in children’s lives. Broadcasters and subscription services both compete for their attention, as viewers and as potential consumers of merchandise. Within this transforming landscape, children’s television is now produced and distributed through complex processes for global and local markets. The arrival of SVOD services like Netflix and Amazon and a dedicated YouTube children’s app further complicated the global production ecology, increasing the transnational nature of children’s screen offerings. Locally produced children’s television content nonetheless retains its importance in policy circles, with its perceived contribution to national cultural representation often used to justify regulatory intervention and financial supports for the genre. This theme issue on children’s television in transition considers policy and production issues related to children’s television in a range of Australasian and international contexts. In doing so it confirms the importance of local content within an increasingly globalized children’s media sector.