Quality television for children in 2015

Abstract

Emerging media technologies and their impact on children’s households may be singled out as one of the key emerging drivers of children’s television. Indeed this is reflected in the alternative scenarios and visions for quality children’s television in 2015 which this research seeks to map and explore. Foresight, as a futures tool for more long-term policy development, has proven an effective systematic approach within this project for broader stakeholder awareness and engagement in the policy process. The approach adopted involved a number of phases, including horizon scanning, focus groups, surveys and interviews over an eightmonth timeframe. The results reveal a number of emerging trends and drivers of quality children’s television in 2015, including the attraction of adult television for children, the growing popularity of hybrid television programmes where parents can spend quality time with their children, children’s need to feel that they can design and create their own television programmes, and the need for plurality and choice together with professionalism and quality in the television offerings, among others. These trends reflect the fact that children are becoming more mature in their tastes and needs at a younger age and expect to be treated accordingly even in the entertainment that they are offered. Indeed we have to come to terms with the fact that children today are far more discerning than we ever were about the quality of television and this is a fact that has to be contended with and catered for. [Excerpt from Executive Summary]