The Changing Production Ecology of Pre-school Television in Britain

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This project investigates the changing production ecology of UK preschool TV in the light of developments since the mid-1990s, a period that coincides with the international success of programmes like Teletubbies and Bob the Builder. Drawing on interviews with producers, commissioners and buyers combined with observations in a range of production environments, the research seeks to articulate and establish the complex internal and external factors that determine preschool production. It will show how key players manage/creatively negotiate these wider commercial, regulatory, cultural and technological forces and the implications for content.This research is timely in view of the UK's recent international successes in preschool and the emergence of domestic (CBeebies) and internationally branded preschool channels (Nick Jr, Playhouse Disney). Government and industry reports regularly identify preschool TV as an important contributor to exports, and international success has foregrounded the growth of key players (Chorion, Entertainment Rights, HIT Entertainment) who generate substantial revenues from programme-related products. Yet the project's timing also coincides with a perceived crisis in children's TV following a ban on advertising for HFSS (high fat sugar salt) foods around programming targeted at children, and the reduced commitment of ITV to commissioning content and transmitting children's shows on its terrestrial service ITV 1. This contrast between international success and domestic crisis provides a compelling rationale for further investigation. However, although preschool TV has been identified as a fruitful source of inquiry, there has been no recent analysis of UK preschool TV and the practices and forces that shape its development, in contrast to work on children's TV generally and substantial effects literature. Within the broader setting of cultural production this research asks the following:- How, why and to what extent has the production ecology of preschool TV changed since the mid-1990s?- What range of forces shape and affect the organisation and production of preschool TV?- How do programme-makers and those involved in the commissioning/acquisition of preschool content manage/creatively negotiate the wider commercial, cultural, regulatory and technological forces that affect production?- How does this combination of external forces and internal strategies impact the nature of what is produced?To meet the project's aims the research will satisfy the following objectives:- A contextualisation of preschool tv with reference to its history, structure, institutional relationships, working operations, professional practices and place within a changing international market - The identification of trends in respect of policy, content, commissioning, scheduling, channel provision, and organisational change. - An overview, identification and assessment of key players and their strategies including broadcasters, satellite channels, production companies and international partners. - An overview of export and ancillary markets (DVD, consumer products) and their impact on production strategies. - An analysis of programme samples produced and broadcast since 1995 to understand how changes in ecology are reflected in programme content- An assessment of the future of preschool in view of technological change and the emergence of new media platforms. By placing the changing relationships and dependencies that constitute the changing production ecology at the heart of the analysis, the research contributes to a more rounded picture of preschool TV. The publication of the monograph Little Kids TV: The Changing Production Ecology of preschool TV for Palgrave Macmillan will benefit those within academia and the production community who wish to better understand how preschool concepts are generated, adapted, produced and exploited to meet a complex set of market and cultural priorities.