Children's TV 'is dying', says Teletubbies creator – Daily TV round-up

The creator of shows including 'Teletubbies' and 'In The Night Garden' has said that children's TV is 'dying out'.

Anne Wood added that the she believed the situation has been in decline and 'struggling for many, many years', due to budget cutbacks.

“The number of people who commission in a serious way have disappeared,” she told Radio 4.

She also expressed her concern that a 'frightening proportion' of programming for younger viewers in the UK is being imported.

[Worries over TV show's forward roll]

“The health of the sector requires there to be more places where you can be properly commissioned - so if one channel doesn't take your work, you have at least got somewhere else to go with it because children are not getting diversity,” she added.

“We used to be a leading country in the creation of original television programmes for children and without the opportunity to research and develop, this disappears.”

According to figures from Ofcom, in 2011 repeat showings of children's shows on TV made up 91% of the output.

This compares to 38% in 1998.

The BBC has defended its output, saying: “BBC Children's works hard to support UK creative industries and is by far the biggest commissioner of UK kids' content from UK producers.

“Our television channels and websites continue to champion home-grown output and around three quarters of our output is British-made.”

A spokesperson for ITV also rejected the claims, saying: “Whilst new commissions are commercially challenging, we do commission original UK children's content as part of our programming mix.”

Wood founded her company Ragdoll in 1984, and has produced programmes including 'Rosie and Jim', 'Teletubbies', 'In The Night Garden' and 'The Adventures of Abney & Teal'. [BBC]

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