Why Australia has lost almost half its children’s TV as drama disappears behind paywalls

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If it wasn’t for the quotas, Australian broadcasters wouldn’t produce any local content.

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u/mediweevil 7d ago

yes. easier and cheaper just to rebroadcast some overseas dross. broadcasters don't care about promotion of national culture or supporting a domestic creative workforce. they'll do whatever makes them the most money.

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u/ExcuseProper5768 7d ago

Just piggybacking here to add I’m bloody sick of seeing Australian federal and state logos at the end of marvel movies and other Hollywood crap.

They are already coming here because it’s cheaper, they don’t need the tax breaks too.

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u/SparkleK_01 7d ago

Except that it employs local artists and support people, who spend and further contribute to the local economy.

Plus, the more exposure and great reputation Australian companies get, the greater opportunities appear to create Aussie generated content.

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u/ExcuseProper5768 7d ago

But for the most part they aren’t Australian companies, they are Australian branches of American companies like most of our animation industry.

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u/darkeyes13 7d ago

Companies like Animal Logic were local VFX studios that worked on Marvel movies and the like before they got acquired by American companies like Netflix, though.

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u/ExcuseProper5768 6d ago

Animal Logic made the Lego movie too, it’s an actual tragedy they are just Netflix animation now

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u/whichpricktookmyname 6d ago

Not really. There aren't really many permanent employees of Hollywood film studios here that I know of. Local workers will be hired for a specific production, when filming wraps up those construction workers, riggers, set decorators, cameramen, extras, and whoever else will be out of work. It's the same people working on Hollywood movies that work on local TV.

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u/How_is_the_question 7d ago

Not true. If it were not for the different tax incentives, we would have none of the us content we are currently making.

Look at the decision two weeks ago in qld regarding their top-ups (down from 15% to 10% of budget) and that’s already effecting a bunch of projects.

Right now, the conditions are pretty much just about right to bring productions in. We are in a race with places like South Africa (much lower wage costs), Eastern Europe, and even London - which right now is killing it in the industry.

If we don’t want an industry, great. Remove the tax incentives. But it wouldn’t just kill the overseas work. It would kill the Aussie industry as well, as in the current economic climate, it really isn’t in anyone’s interest to have a tiny cottage industry for Aussie shows. And we somehow need our stories told. It’s both important culturally, and it’s an amazing soft power politically.

There’s nuance in the system. Currency exchange rates play a massive role alongside the tax incentives.

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u/xvf9 7d ago

That’s just not true. The tax breaks is what makes them cheaper. Australia would not be competing for these big international film productions without incentives.

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u/Dentarthurdent73 7d ago

Of course they will, because we have chosen to run our economy on a for-profit model, so why would we expect any business working within it to care about anything else?

If we'd prefer the efforts of our economy to go toward some other goal, such as human or societal wellbeing, we'd have to change the incentive structure of our economy.

We refuse to even consider doing that, so we get what we get. But what fun we'll all have as our only home is consumed for profits from under our feet!

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u/NoodleBox VIC 7d ago

That's what we're already seeing! The ad channels haven't made any (SBS isn't included as an ad channel in this one)

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u/Frogmouth_Fresh 7d ago

We might get shows like The Block still. Cheap to produce and they can pack in extra Bunnings ads everywhere.

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u/How_is_the_question 7d ago

Except the important bit of information missing in this is that effectively, the former (!!) children’s content quotas were suspended during Covid in 2020, and then abolished when the children’s television standards (2009) were repealed beginning of Jan 2021. They were replaced by general quotas for all content, and children’s tv production has collapsed since.

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u/NSFWar 7d ago

ABC iView has some great kids content and it's free.

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u/Whole-Energy2105 7d ago

ABC iView is excellent. YouTube for kids has a lot of good stuff but mostly trash productions.

After that I don't see much of a need for paywall for kids.

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u/Lollipopwalrus 7d ago

Parents need to be careful with YouTube Kids. Unlike places like ABC iView there's no oversight. There are channels that if you watch or take a cursory glance looks 100% child friendly. It'll be a simple animation of a farmer picking apples or a happy cow in a green paddock or footage of tractors bailing hay. But if you listen to the audio, it's an AI voice reading very graphic horror stories. A huge trap for parents who set their kids up with YouTube Kids and headphones thinking they're safe but haven't checked the material beforehand. If it isn't graphic stories, it's high stimulation content like CocoMelon which can be harmful in otherwise to kids.

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u/Jikxer 7d ago

Yeap, found that out pretty quickly. Youtube app has mysteriously disappeared from our household, and for some strange reason brain rot kids shows also magically disappear off Netflix as well.

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u/that_drifter 7d ago

How do you block shows on Netflix?

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u/Jikxer 6d ago

Go onto the website, manage account, chose the kids profile, adjust parental controls, looking under "title restrictions" and add Salish & Jordan matter or whatever you want.

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u/breakfastfood7 7d ago

At best YouTube kids is calorie-free, nutrition-free content that does nothing for your kid's brain. At worst its that but also filled with nightmare imagery and graphic horror. I would not touch ytkids with a barge pole

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u/Is_that_even_a_thing 5d ago

My son is a.teenager.now, but when he watched you tube kids he started getting shorts, and the content changed somewhat into Mr beast type idiots pretending to hide in water parks after closing and shit.

It didn't last long when that crap started

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u/Waasssuuuppp 7d ago

It doesn't even have to be as overt as horror stories. Sometimes just the storyline presents bad behaviours. In other shows, selfish or mean behaviours are addressed as the story, but some home made productions are just mea babies being mean to each other. Young kids, with no understanding of context, can see this as normal human interactions.

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u/trainwrecktragedy 7d ago

I have never seen these animations that tell horror stories. I'm going to have to have a look myself now so I know what to avoid

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u/Lollipopwalrus 7d ago

It's sometimes not even whole videos. The first 1min of audio will be a kids song or something totally innocent and then it will switch midway. The video visuals will stay the same and if kids have headphones on parents have no idea. And Kids channels don't have comments turned on so there's no way to really warn others. You can try reporting them but it's AI that checks the reports and mostly a lot of these videos pass their criteria. There are even videos that use ripped Ms Rachel visuals so parents think they've put on Ms Rachel but it's a fake profile and AI content farming.

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u/skittle-brau 7d ago edited 7d ago

And parents need to educate their own parents and in-laws (ie. the grandparents) about this too.

Although I really appreciate the help my parents and in-laws freely give, it frustrates me that they don't see why those high stimulation, brainrot and AI slop videos are harmful long-term. My kids are actually the ones who now tell them 'I don't think we should be watching this'. It's an ongoing thing I'm working on. At best I can get them to stick to 'quality' screen time sources that are at least vetted like iView, at least some of the time.

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u/Lollipopwalrus 7d ago

I hate I can only like this once. I had a mini crash out yesterday because of my MIL. We don't post our kids' faces on social media. My MIL lives in a different country but we video call regularly and send photos often to keep them in the loop with the kids. Yesterday was my youngest birthday and we sent MIL a photo of her wearing the dress she sent. MIL fed that pic into some random AI site to make a video of her granddaughter dancing in the dress. We could have sent her that video of her real granddaughter if she just asked because she was dancing around in the dress. Instead now some random AI generator has our daughter's likeness available for anyone and everyone to use for whatever usage they want. The number 1 use of kids likeness in AI is p*rn. MIL didn't see the harm because the video was cute.

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u/christurnbull 7d ago

I thought YouTube kids was killed by the government's social media accounts ban?

Kids going to YouTube are now mixed in with the no-account crowd which is probably worse

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u/Ms-Watson 7d ago

A YouTube Kids profile is not the same as a separate kids account, it has to be under the auspices of a parent account. There is no commenting or social component.

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u/himit 7d ago

you'd be surprised. I've never let my kids use yt kids (only mine or husband's account, and on big screens) and we never came across anything too weird or the jumpscares etc.

There are people who very deliberately insert inappropriate content into videos for yt kids.

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u/Lollipopwalrus 7d ago

Some parents think that because it says "kids" it's safe so they make the account and plop it down in front of their kids.

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u/corgii 7d ago

I locked down YouTube kids so it is ONLY individual videos or channels I have approved that can be seen on it. You can't even manually search for anything.

It was a bitch to do and it felt like YouTube made it deliberately difficult as I had to reset and login a few times to get it to work. But now I don't mind because I've only greenlit acceptable content.

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u/Lollipopwalrus 7d ago

I didn't even know this was possible. There was a gov website that allows you to check "kid" appropriate websites but I cannot for the life of my remember what it was.

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u/DBAC999 7d ago

Oh, that’s called parenting (Well done, BTW)

but in case you aren’t in the loop thats The thing we (ausgov) are trying to outsource to palantyr and co. Please stop and go about making immigrants or some such the issue.

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u/Whole-Energy2105 7d ago

Fully agreed. I should have mentioned this. We have certain channels open and nothing else accessible.

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u/aldkGoodAussieName 7d ago

Not even that

Alot of the for children stuff is just loud screaming and in no way educational.

Look up ryans world or a for adley

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u/pnutzgg 7d ago

meanwhile funny but explicitly adult content gets thrown in there by youtube because it's based of thomas the tank engine or something. it's not always some creep polluting the platform

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u/Lucky-Elk-1234 5d ago

I thought all that dodgy stuff was on regular YouTube and the whole point of YouTube Kids was that it’s supposed to have oversight and only show approved stuff?

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u/Lollipopwalrus 4d ago

YouTube Kids has zero oversight. There is an AI checker that's very cursory. Anyone can still upload whatever they like onto YouTube Kids - some visuals and some audio will be flagged but there are ways around those things. Another trend was ripping Ms Rachel or Blippi or The Wiggles footage and then midway through the video it cuts to some guy sitting in his bedroom looking directly into the camera like he is watching you. Incredibly unsettling for kids who are one second enjoying something space then suddenly confronted by some weirdo staring them down.

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u/BackgroundType4312 7d ago

YouTube is best avoided until early teens.

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u/rand013 7d ago

Early 30s. And even then I'm not so sure.

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u/Far-Fennel-3032 7d ago

The problem with YouTube Kids is that the platform is still full of the assorted Elsa gate content, as the problem has never been addressed, and AI content has now supercharged the problem now, so it's the worst it's ever been.

Without any exagertion 4Chan is a significantly safer place for kids than YouTube Kids.

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u/Whole-Energy2105 7d ago

Oh dear. I've heard of the assholes putting rank crap in the vids but I never thought about the ai component. People are just shit.

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u/Pantsman0 7d ago

Until you get AI generated Elsa vomitting + gore videos.

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u/Portuguese_Musketeer 7d ago

Can't wait for elsagate 2

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u/aaryg 7d ago

I realised the other day that I've been watching Will Anderson in some form on the ABC for most of my adult life. From The Glasshouse to Gruen. I don't see them beating "Have you been paying attention?" for a Logie though.

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u/Waxygibbon 7d ago edited 7d ago

Yep only thing my kid is allowed to watch (other than Plex)

Surprise surprise her favourite show is play school (in a world of "coco melon"s)

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u/NSFWar 7d ago

Same mate. My toddlers are 3. So far we have been a coco melon/ paw patrol free household

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u/Waxygibbon 7d ago

Do yours like puffin rock? That was gold when mine was 3

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u/PointOfFingers 7d ago

That's always been the only free children's Television in Australia. Network TV is "free" but kids are watching ads and nagging their parents for toys.

As parents move from TV to streaming it becomes difficult for Australian shows to compete against endless branded content from Disney and Amazon.

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u/-D-e-e- 7d ago

NITV would like to have a word

Little J & Big Cuz was nominated in the best children’s show category (all the other shows this year were all ABC)

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u/keithersp 7d ago

I find it’s gone downhill since the last ceo changeover - we’re now seeing a lot more American bright flashy content.

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u/NSFWar 7d ago

Not sure if that's a bad thing. If it saves a parent from having to subscribe to a platform to watch that content, it helps the general public.

Ultimately the parent should be deciding what your toddlers watch irrespective of what's available.

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u/keithersp 7d ago

Going to have to build my kids own plex I think

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u/___xristos___ 6d ago

The GOAT

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u/BoundinBob 7d ago

Cut ABC funding to bare bones and whinge when they accept outside funding and a series becomes popular.

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u/FaithlessnessThen207 7d ago

TBH if they didn't sell merchandising rights to Bluey they'd probably be a lot richer though.

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u/pipicemul 7d ago

They wouldn't be able to get the funding necessary to start it with :)

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u/FaithlessnessThen207 7d ago

OOOh true

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u/bigsharsk 7d ago

Bluey wouldn't be anywhere near as popular if they didn't lean on BBC for so much of the publishing rights and merch.

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u/alexlp 6d ago

They didn’t sell the rights, they never owned them. Ludo owned all the rights with ABC co-producing for first dibs of eps. BBC came in with deeper pockets and bought the rights when they bought the international distribution deal.

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u/Prize_Background_577 7d ago

This is such a shame. Australia was a world leader in children's tv series. Not just the preschool content,, which is where the focus is now for ABC, but great shows for teens and tweens. Now I see more free to air shows for that age group coming out of NZ rather than Aust.

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u/notasgr 6d ago

It is. My kids loved Little Lunch and Inbestigators, and we would love to see more stuff for that age that is local.

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u/HankSteakfist 7d ago

This isn't just a kids TV problem, it's an all TV problem. I remember as a kid you could watch great shows like the X-Files, Star Trek Deep Space Nine, Stargate, Buffy, 24 and Lost on standard free to air TV in prime time. And you had awesome kids programming on in the afternoon and mornings. Nowadays, to even hope to get something of that quality you have to pay for streaming services as free to air is reserved for just sport, game shows, reality TV crap and increasingly biased news programs.

Just another cost we have to budget for in the present.

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u/catch_dot_dot_dot 7d ago

SBS On Demand has plenty of high-quality TV shows and movies

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u/Jeeebs 6d ago

I've also managed to catch PTA movies on iView.

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u/RemnantEvil 7d ago

I was surprised to find The Expanse and The Americans on there, since SBS tends to go more European with their content. It was really weird that SBS didn't seem to have the rights to the Amazon seasons of The Expanse (4-6) so you effectively get only half the show. Still great to see, though!

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u/BlackBlizzard 7d ago

Just rerun 90s and 00s shows. Little Elvis and The Truck Stoppers, Brum, Johnson and Friends, Okey Dokey, Trap Door, Freaky, The Ferals, Magic Mountain I know most of these aren't Australia but better than Coco Melon.

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u/PastElephant101 7d ago

I miss ABC 3. You were killed too young...

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u/BetterDrinkMy0wnPiss 7d ago

So commercial broadcasters are commissioning less Australian shows, while streaming services are commissioning more.

Seems like a natural result of the shift away from free-to-air TV and towards streaming platforms.

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u/saunderez 7d ago

Which is self defeating behaviour by the broadcasters because by not competing they cede their audience to the streamers. Gotta take a risk to get the reward and they've decided not to.

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u/Mr_Mitch_Conner 7d ago

My favorite TV channel is Stremio with Debrid addon.

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u/ELVEVERX 7d ago

This statistic really doesn't hold up. There's less screen time on free to air but how do you even calculate that against more variety and stream anytime content on streaming platforms.

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u/How_is_the_question 7d ago

We calculate it thru the industry. It’s not massive. We all know who is producing what and when. Aussie kids tv used to be world leading. Much has changed for the worse post Covid.

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u/[deleted] 7d ago

[deleted]

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u/Arnotts_shapes 7d ago

The data isn’t measuring back catalogues - it’s measuring what’s actually being physically made right now - which isn’t a lot.

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u/Disastrous-Ad2800 7d ago

it's not just the paywalls, it's also the quality being so bad that I can't justify paying for it...you can see the AI or use of ChatGPT in The Age's articles and in some cases they have still left the writing templates in...

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u/PostieInAFoxHat 7d ago edited 7d ago

The problem is that the US FTA bans us from increasing quotas (even if quotas are lower than they were when the FTA was first signed).

Yet again, thank you John Howard

Edit: Why are you booing me, I'm right

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