Generation Alpha will watch Blue Peter – but they need to find it on YouTube, BBC says
Netflix and YouTube should pay a levy from their profits to create a £100m fund for UK children’s programming, leading presenters said, amid warnings that kids’ TV is facing a crisis.
Former Blue Peter stars Anthea Turner and Konnie Huq led calls for the Government to intervene as the lure of streaming and video-sharing platforms forces traditional broadcasters to abandon children’s programming.
The dominance of YouTube – now the first choice TV destination for Generation Alpha, according to Ofcom – is leaving children at the mercy of “age-inappropriate content and generic or US-focused content, rather than content focused on the needs of a UK audience,” the Children’s Media Foundation (CMF) said.
Funding of children’s programmes has slumped by 52 per cent over the past 20 years, according to Ofcom, with 66 per cent of 3 to 17-year-olds now watching live-streamed videos.
The number of new UK-originated children’s programmes on Public Service Broadcasters (PSB) dropped to 518, its lowest level in a decade, whilst broadcast TV viewing time among children fell by 11 per cent last year, the watchdog found.
ITV has closed its dedicated CITV channel, moving its children’s output to a section on ITVX, whilst Sky Kids said it is axing original programmes and will focus on acquired shows instead.
The BBC is planning to make its CBBC channel online-only, with programmes such as Blue Peter now sometimes playing out to a few thousand TV viewers.
Turner, who presented Blue Peter from 1992 to 1994, told The i Paper: “The BBC is almost the last bastion of children’s TV, but it’s a battle to get young people’s eyes on their programmes.”
“We have to find a way for Netflix, other streamers, YouTube and TikTok to pay into a pot to produce children’s programmes for UK children. For the streamers who have a licence to broadcast, it should be part of their licence obligations to produce quality children’s programmes.”
Greg Childs, CMF director, said: “A levy of a percentage of UK revenues should apply to TikTok, YouTube and Netflix. Even just one to three per cent of their revenues could help create a £100m a year fund to create content of public value to society and personal value to kids.”
Only about 20 per cent of material viewed on YouTube in the UK is actually made in the UK, Ofcom found. The watchdog said the government should consider new measures, backed by laws, to generate additional funding for British-made children’s content.
Huq, Blue Peter’s longest-serving female presenter, appearing from 1997 to 2008, said a levy was a “good step in the right direction.”
But the mother of two children aged 13 and 11, added: “You can plough money into kids’ programming but if they are not seeing it and watching it, it still doesn’t help them become intelligent and bright.”
“The default position of people is to go for the easy, brainless option like watching videos of idiots jumping into a swimming pool of M&Ms.”
“YouTube then throws up suggestions so you might be six videos away from something not suitable for children. Parents are continually playing catch-up.”
Patricia Hidalgo, BBC director of Children and Education, warned that the sector had reached a crisis point. She told The i Paper: “We continue to accelerate towards a world where UK kids are overwhelmed by global content.
“Since 2010, the volume of PSB children’s content has halved, with the BBC Children’s and Education now responsible for delivering the majority of what remains. UK children are losing the chance to see their own lives and culture on screen.”
Hidalgo is shifting her resources into animation in a bid to find a UK-originated “Bluey” that could appeal to older children. But animation is too expensive for the BBC to fund without securing money from international partners.
She added: “Without urgent interventions and support for UK-made content, we risk a generation growing up disconnected from their own identity.”
The £100m fund would be open to independent producers and commercial platforms – including ITV, Netflix and YouTube – to make UK-originated programmes of value to children.
A previous £44m British Film Institute (BFI) backed Young Audiences Content Fund was axed by the Conservative Government in 2022, in part because the programmes produced were not seen by young viewers who press the YouTube button straightaway.
Shocking children’s content on YouTube
The videos they engage with on YouTube can be far from suitable on a platform that primarily encourages amateur content for, about and often by children.
A Breaking Bad themed cooking show, based on the Netflix drama about Crystal Meth production, and a fast-track weight loss series were categorised as “Suitable for Children” on YouTube. While this content has now been removed, The i Paper discovered a number if inappropriate videos on YouTube, including kids favourite Ben Alzalart (46.6 million subscribers) who has channels across both KidsTube and YouTube platforms, one of his most viewed videos is a “slapping across the face contest” and a “spin the wheel dare” to bath, strip, slap or kiss with his girlfriend.
On KidsTube, children can currently view a how-to face paint video of characters from the supernatural horror film and video game Five Nights at Freddy’s. Meanwhile, 7 DIY Pranks, a popular peer-to-peer programme with high production value, teaches children how to set fire to fake food to burn people’s tongues.
YouTube said its Kids app “provides parents robust controls to decide what content to make available to their children.”
YouTube Kids has a “higher bar for which videos can be a part of the app and the platform said that “high-quality ‘Made for Kids’ content gets raised up in recommendations.”
In a bid to win over a YouTube generation, the BBC has revamped the 66-year-old Blue Peter, ending live broadcasts and moving the show to a new, more informal Manchester studio, tricked out like the kind of teenagers’ den children are used to seeing YouTube influencers present from.
Hidalgo said: “YouTube is where the audience is and we have to respect that. If we want to reach children, we need to understand what they’re watching and adapt our content accordingly, while staying true to our values to inform, educate, and entertain.”
But Blue Peter is battling for visibility against a plethora of children’s “mega brands” on YouTube, such as CoComelon, which boasts 197 million subscribers compared to the BBC programme’s 65,000.
Blue Peter clips of fun stunts and challenges sometimes attract a few hundred views a day. The show’s biggest recent hit tapped into the BBC entertainment show Gladiators for a challenge featuring its lycra-clad giants against children, which racked up 853,000 views over four months.
BBC iPlayer is watched by 1.6 million under-16s a week, but its interface lacks the addictive simplicity of YouTube’s feed.
Hidalgo is backing Ofcom’s call for YouTube to give prominence to children’s programmes made by channels like the BBC, ITV and Channel 4.
Hidalgo said: “UK kids’ content needs real prominence on third-party platforms, so it reaches the audiences it’s made fo
Ministers are backing the demands for YouTube to promote quality UK-made content. “If we need to regulate, we will. But we would prefer industry to come together to move on this and move quickly,” Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy told the RTS Cambridge convention.
YouTube said in a statement: “Discussions about regulation seem premature when there are so many more opportunities for closer partnership with public service broadcasters to achieve our shared objectives.”
It added: “Punitive levies on platforms already supporting creators would be counterintuitive.”
The Google-owned platform said it is already working constructively with the BBC and Channel 4 to help drive young audiences and pointed to “quality” YouTube UK success stories, including Cosmic Kids Yoga, Maddie Moate and MC Grammar.
But legislation alone is not the solution, parents have a role to play too, said Turner.
“If parents are just letting kids watch a YouTube video scroll on their iPads and not finding programmes to watch together. Then they’re not going to watch Blue Peter or the like,” the presenter said.
Turner, who launched what became Blue Peter’s most successful “make” of all time: the Tracy Island model from Thunderbirds, said: “Children are still fascinated by shows which broaden their horizons. If you encourage children to make things, they love it.”
A Netflix spokesperson said: “We don’t think a streaming levy is the answer and neither does the Government; the Culture Secretary has ruled this out.”
Netflix said it offered a range of UK-produced original content for British children, family and young adult audiences, including Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget and Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl. The fruits of a new partnership with the Roald Dahl Company will soon be seen.
But the Department of Culture, Media and Sport told The i Paper that “The Government welcomes Ofcom’s Public Service Media Review”, which includes funding recommendations for children’s programmes, “We are committed to supporting access to high quality, UK-made children’s content”
Baroness Floella Benjamin, the trailblazing BBC children’s presenter, who returns 49 years after her debut on the CBeebies House series, said: “It’s more important than ever that every child has access to homegrown and educational programming that will enrich their lives for years to come.”
