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15|05|07

Ofcom Voice of the Listener and Viewer Speech

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Good morning, and I’d just like to say thank you for inviting me to speak at the Voice of the Listener and Viewer Conference on the role of media in contemporary childhood.

Over the next few minutes I would like to share with you some of the broad themes emerging from our new research. This is the first time we have been able to share some of this data.

I’m going to concentrate on where television fits into children’s media consumption habits, how their viewing is changing and what this means for the traditional role of public service broadcasting. Then I would like to spend a few moments to clarify Ofcom’s role in this area, and finally I will talk about the scope and content of our review, which we aim to complete later this year.

Children’s television arouses enormous passions in this country - witness a recent article from a very distinguished media journalist!

Many people believe that children’s television is currently in crisis.

What is not disputable is that children’s television is undergoing a process of profound change, and I hope to be able to explain some of the components of this change over the next few slides.

Today, there are clearly many media platforms competing for children’s attention.

However, even in this digital world, television remains the dominant medium. Our recent audit of media literacy shows that 97% of 8-11 year olds and 94% of 12 - 15 year olds regularly use television, way ahead of gaming, DVDs and the internet.

As well as being the medium which children use most, television is also the most important medium for children, with 43% of 8-11 year olds saying they would miss it the most - almost double the figure for games and seven times that of the internet.

As children get older, mobile phones become more important, but even amongst 12-15 year olds television remains the most important medium.

First of all, where are they watching?

Around three quarters of all children say they have a TV in their bedroom

Boys are most likely to have a TV than girls, and older children more likely than younger children.

Who are they watching with?

Around two thirds of children regularly watch television either alone or with other children. As you might expect, when children are younger, they are more likely to watch with a grown up but as they get older they watch more on their own.

How much are they watching?

Perhaps surprisingly, despite the importance of television in children’s lives, they still watch significantly less television than adults.

This is not a new trend - it reflects the limited amount of time children physically have to watch TV in the context of all their other activities.

In 2006, children watched 15 and a half hours of television per week overall, compared to over 25 hours for adults.
As well as watching less TV than adults, children’s viewing is also declining over time, falling from 16.7 hours per week in 2002 to 15.5 hours in 2006.

The internet is clearly an influencing factor here. We also know that 12-14 year olds spend about 12 hours per week on the internet, but for 8-11 year olds it is around 7 hours.

What are they watching?

So children are watching less TV - but what are they watching?

It’s a fact that over 70% of children’s viewing is to adult programmes.

But it’s viewing to adult programmes that is in decline. Children aren’t watching less children’s programmes. The proportion of children’s viewing to children’s programmes grew between 2002 and 2006, from 27% of total viewing to 30%.

Within this context, children are shifting their viewing habits away from the traditional children’s programmes on BBC One, BBC Two and ITV - to dedicated children’s channels available on Freeview, cable and satellite.

82% of children’s viewing in 2006 was to dedicated children’s channels such as CBBC, CBeebies, Nickelodeon and Disney - increasing from 55% in 2002.

Conversely, the mainstream channels accounted for only 18% of viewing in 2006.

Let’s just dwell for a moment on the reasons for these changes in viewing trends.

Reasons for change in viewing trends

Nearly two thirds of children are able to receive cable and satellite, with a further 24% able to receive channels such as CBBC and CBeebies on Freeview (91% overall).

And children are far more likely to have access to digital multi-channels than adults as a whole.

We also need to remember that the number of children’s channels available has grown.

There are now over 25 channels offering children’s programmes, of which 20 are dedicated children’s channels.

And it’s not just channels like Disney, Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon. The main public service broadcasters have also diversified into multichannel programming for children.

The BBC provides BBC and CBeebies, ITV provides CITV and Five has a branded block of children’s programmes on its digital channel Five Life.

It is also a fact that there is more choice of content available at the times children want to watch.

Most children’s viewing is actually in adult airtime, with the most popular period being between 6 O’ Clock and 9 O’ Clock in the evening. Viewing at this time is higher in multi-channel households than in those only able to receive analogue signals as the chart shows.

Many of the dedicated children’s channels are available to watch at peak viewing times.

Interestingly, none of the public service channels are available after 7pm.

Fragmentation of viewing

As a result of the sheer choice of channels available, viewing has fragmented. It is no longer the case that a single channel could attract up to 50% market share.

In multi-channel homes, we have already seen that the five terrestrial channels account for just 18% of viewing. This has had a significant impact on the business model for children’s programming.

However the remaining 82% is split between over 20 channels, with no single channel achieving a significant market share.

What does this mean for the Public Service Broadcasters?

The PSB channels are, BBC One, BBC Two, ITV1, Channel 4, Five and the two BBC digital children’s channels; CBeebies and CBBC.

Together, these channels are expected to contribute to a range of high quality, original programmes for children and young people, and historically the PSBs have provided significantly more drama and factual programmes than the commercial multi-channels.

The output of PSB broadcasters is defined by a set of purposes and characteristics which Ofcom first put forward in our review of PSB in 2004.

We proposed four purposes of PSB:
Informing our understanding of the world
Stimulating Knowledge and learning
Reflecting the UK’s cultural identity
And representing diversity and alternative viewpoints.

We also recommended six characteristics of PSB:

High quality
Original
Innovative
Challenging
Engaging, and
Widely available

These purposes and characteristics are the main way we assess how well PSB is being delivered overall and they apply in particular to children’s programming.

How have the PSBs been performing?

As we saw earlier, the share of viewing taken by the terrestrial PSB channels has fallen to just 18% of the total.

But when we include CBBC and CBeebies, this increases to just under 40% of viewing - so the PSBs still command a large share of viewing, albeit dominated by the BBC.

And the PSB channels still deliver programmes which children want to watch.

In multichannel homes in 2006, 17 out of the top 20 programmes broadcast that year were from the PSBs, with 14 being from the BBC.

So what has been happening to the volume of programming on the PSB channels?

As I said earlier there has been a massive increase in the availability of children’s programming and this also applies to the PSB’s channels. Between 1998 and 2006 the hours of children’s programming on PSB channels tripled. This was mainly down to the launch of the BBC’s digital children’s channels, CBBC and CBeebies.

Looking more closely at the figures, however, it is clear that programme repeats have accounted for a significant proportion of this increase in hours broadcast.

The number of repeats on the PSB channels as a proportion of total output increased six-fold between 1998 and 2006.

At the same time, the number of hours of first-run, original programmes has remained relatively stable.

The increase in original programming commissioned by the BBC’s children’s channels has been balanced by a reduction in new programmes by BBC One and ITV1.

We are aware that many of the dedicated children’s channels commission and produce original UK content - we hope to be able to report on the extent of this in our review.

Spend on UK originations

We’ve seen that hours of first run UK original programming has been more or less stable.

However, spend on original programming has fallen - from £110 million per year in 1998 to just under £90 million in 2006. This represents a decline of one fifth in actual terms but nearer to one third in real terms.

The BBC are the only broadcaster to have increased spend over this period.

Consequently, the cost per hour of first run originations by the PSBs has fallen from £85,000 per hour in 1998 to £56,000 per hour in 2006, a reduction of one third in actual terms, or around half in real terms.

This indicates that the quality of new programmes being broadcast might have fallen significantly.

What parents do think about the programmes their children are watching

As part of our PSB Annual Report published in March 2007 we commissioned research into parent’s views of how the PSB channels performed against the purposes and characteristics of PSB.

The results were emphatic.

Parents overwhelmingly recognised the importance of the PSB purposes and characteristics to children’s programming.

80% felt it was important that children’s programmes should help children learn and develop.

76% felt it was important that programmes were well made and of a high quality

75% felt that children’s programmes should help children understand what is going on in the world

And nearly two thirds of parents felt that there should be enough programmes made in the UK for their children to watch. When parents were asked how well these PSB purposes and characteristics were being delivered, the results are revealing.

In general, over half of parents felt that PSB channels were delivering well-made, high quality programming.

The BBC channels scored highest here, but ITV1 and Five also garnered approval from around half of respondents.

However, when it came to delivery of programmes which help children to learn and develop, the scores were less emphatic, with only CBeebies and CBBC gaining approval of 7 in 10 parents. And in terms of delivering programmes made in the UK, the results were once again inconsistent, with fewer than half believing this purpose was being delivered well overall.

So what does all this evidence show us?

It shows that television is still the most important medium for children - but there are increasingly other media competing for their attention.

However, children’s viewing is migrating from the traditional PSB channels to specialist channels on digital platforms.

In spite of all this, PSB programming is still important for parents and children. But the traditional model for delivering PSB children’s programmes is in flux.

As viewing fragments, investment in PSB programming is declining. This has been shown most recently in ITV’s decision to scale back its commitments to children’s programming.

At this point I would like to talk about Ofcom’s role and duties in relation to children’s television.

The 2003 Communications Act requires broadcasters to monitor their own performance in relation to providing PSB programming which falls under the so called tier 3 genres (which includes genres such as religious programmes, arts, education and science).

What is the regulatory context?

Being in tier 3 means that Ofcom has no powers to ensure a set number of hours broadcast.

Broadcasters are required to consult Ofcom about any significant changes they may wish to make to their service, and take account of any guidance given by Ofcom.

This effectively means that the PSB broadcasters themselves must decide how best to deliver children’s programming.

However, Ofcom does have a duty to assess whether there is a sufficient contribution, across all PSB channels, to a suitable range of high quality and original programmes for children and young people as a whole.

So our first job is to do just that - not to look at whether what individual channels are doing is enough, but to assess delivery across the market as a whole.

And that’s why we have launched our review of children’s programming. I’ve already shared some of the preliminary research in our review.

Review of children’s programming

This will be one of the most thorough and comprehensive reviews of children’s television in recent years. In scoping the review, we have sought the opinions of a range of stakeholders including the Voice of the Listener and Viewer which has provided helpful guidance as we determined our programme of research.

The review aims to address a number of key questions. The core questions are:

What is the state of children’s media in the UK and the role of television within this?
What are the prospects for the future delivery of a wide range of high quality and original content for children, and
What are the regulatory and legislative options for securing this in the future?

In researching children we intend to focus on three distinct age groups; the under 6s (pre-school), the 7-12s (primary school) and the 13 to 15 year olds.

In doing this we may conclude that different approaches are needed for different age groups.

In trying to answer these questions we are undertaking a thorough programme of research and analysis, including:
An audit of consumption and output data over the past 10 years
Deliberative research amongst parents and children covering attitudes towards children’s television and what they value most as consumers and citizens.
A programme of stakeholder interviews - so far we have met with well over 50 key people in the industry.
A review of the academic literature around children’s television.
A comprehensive study of the economics of production and commissioning
A review of international markets and regulatory practice, to assess the effectiveness of different forms of intervention.

In terms of outcomes, first we need to assess objectively where the problem lies. Today I have shared with you some of our very early analysis, but there is much more work being done. Then we need to ask ourselves two questions.

The first question is whether the BBC, together with other commercial providers, is enough to guarantee the future provision of high quality, UK originated children’s programming?

If we do not believe that this is the case, then we need to consider what forms of public intervention might be appropriate to secure this in the future.

Timing

We propose to publish our findings in three phases:

First, a report on the results of our evidence gathering, which we hope to publish later on this Summer

Second, following the research report, we will assess possible policy options and seek feedback later on in the Autumn.

And finally, incorporating our recommendations into the next Ofcom PSB review which will kick off later this year.

Ofcom’s review of children’s programming will not offer any short term fixes. But we hope it will be a conduit for a serious debate on the future of children’s television in the UK and how best to ensure that UK children continue to receive a wide range of high quality and original programming.

Thank you.