The UK’s support for children’s content will soon be put under the microscope by the parliament’s Culture, Media and Sport Committee.

Announcing a new inquiry today, the department underlined a primary goal—to ensure that high-quality programming for British kids can continue being made and accessed easily through digital platforms in the future, as these viewers continue to shift to online.

This examination of the provision of children’s TV and video content seeks to identify who is commissioning kids content and which audiences are underserved, while also exploring a range of other issues, such as the positive and negative effects of how kids consume content today, and the effectiveness of parental control tools. It will also spotlight the economic and cultural contributions of the children’s TV sector in the UK. 

Starting today, the committee is inviting responses to its list of questions by September 4. 

This inquiry comes as young British audiences continue to shift from linear to online content consumption. UK regulator Ofcom’s 2023 report on three- to 17-year-olds found that nearly all of this cohort (96%) uses video-sharing sites and apps, with YouTube standing out as their most-used platform (88%).

“We all want young people to have access to a range of programming, so in addition to cartoons, they also see drama and factual programs,” said Dame Caroline Dinenage, chair of the committee, in a release. “We want them to be able to be educated and inspired, as well as entertained.”

Dinenage added: “Changes to the media landscape, particularly the shift in viewing to YouTube, pose huge challenges for the future of children’s programming and the continued production of original content by our public service broadcasters.”

In another recent move to support broadcasters, the same committee has been pushing for a levy on streamers like Netflix and Disney+ since April—recommending that the platforms pay 5% of their UK subscriber revenue into a fund that would go toward supporting high-end programming for British audiences.

However, the UK government formally rejected this recommendation yesterday in a statement that noted: “In line with our objective to support a mixed ecology, we will however continue to engage with major SVOD services, with the independent production sector and with [public broadcasters] on how best to ensure mutually beneficial conditions for all parties.”

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