Supporting children’s drama in the on demand age: Assessing the efficacy of forty years of Australian policy frameworks and funding schemes

Abstract

This is a case study of 40 years of policy approaches in Australian children’s television during which the children’s television production ecology was profoundly altered by new distribution technologies. For decades Australia used quotas, subsidies and screen organisation The Australian Children’s Television Foundation to safeguard supplies of children’s television including drama. Digitisation has caused enormous industrial disruption while delivering abundant children’s content on demand. The article calls for new approaches to supporting local children’s screen content through increased funding of public service media rather than the ad hoc distribution of resources to an organisation without direct pathways to audiences.