Channel 4 to invest in Kids TV

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TheBrollachan
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Channel 4 to invest in Kids TV

Post by TheBrollachan »

(Mostly lifted from another site...)
Channel 4 has ring-fenced £10m to spend on programmes for 10-to 15 year-olds over the next two years - with a flagship drama series set to take centre stage.



C4's move into children's TV follows ITV scaling back its kids output. "This is not a particularly commercially viable thing to do and commercial broadcasters have cut back [in this area]," said Lygo. "You're unlikely to attract a vast audience. It's a departure for us, born out of a belief in what Ofcom and others have identified as a group that's not particularly well served by television."
Article (registration required): http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/news/2008 ... utput.html

Nice to see a UK channel investing in children's TV, maybe if it's successful rival channels might follow the idea.
Last edited by TheBrollachan on 13 Mar 2008, 22:42, edited 1 time in total.
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Re:Channel 4 to invest in Kids TV

Post by Pooka »

Intriguing. I like Channel 4, but I've never really thought of children's TV on it.
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Re:Channel 4 to invest in Kids TV

Post by Gizensha »

The Brollachan wrote: (Mostly lifted from another site...)
Channel 4 has ring-fenced £10m to spend on programmes for 10-to 15 year-olds over the next two years - with a flagship drama series set to take centre stage.



C4's move into children's TV follows ITV scaling back its kids output. "This is not a particularly commercially viable thing to do and commercial broadcasters have cut back [in this area]," said Lygo. "You're unlikely to attract a vast audience. It's a departure for us, born out of a belief in what Ofcom and others have identified as a group that's not particularly well served by television."
Article (registration required): http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/news/2008 ... utput.html

Nice to see a UK channel investing in children's TV, maybe if it's successful rival channels might follow the idea.
The commercial channels won't, there isn't any money to be made in kids tv now that fast food companies have been banned from advertising in kids programming.

The BBC already invest in kids tv, and I believe are starting to invest in their own 10-16 year old programming as well. Which is, I feel, better news for Knightmare, since C4 isn't exactly known for it's revivals, whereas the BBC occasionally do revivals (Even if the Treasure Hunt revival lasted all of 15 episodes. [victim of it's own success based on the fact the last five of which went out on BBC1 but didn't increase the ratings from BBC2's ratings which got it there])

As for C4 and kids programming associations, I'd kinda assumed they still did the educational age 5-10 C4 Schools programming that they did while I was in school.
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Re:Channel 4 to invest in Kids TV

Post by Ironlord »

Gizensha wrote: As for C4 and kids programming associations, I'd kinda assumed they still did the educational age 5-10 C4 Schools programming that they did while I was in school.
Ye gods. I remember those from when I was a nipper - even if I was mainly watching the programmes for deaf kids, of which I was not one. Didn't pick up any sign language from it, though... or from the signed bits of Sesame Street.

I would say C4 should get Christopher Lillicrap out of retirement, but I won't because the average 5-10 year old now would realise how unfortunate his name is...
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Re:Channel 4 to invest in Kids TV

Post by Snowcat »

So here we have Channel 4 throwing money at Knightmares traditional demographic in one part of the forum...

And a certain "BVA" (who most have figured out the identity of by now ;) ) saying that "Something is stirring" in another part nearby.

Coincidence? Possibly. I'm up for some fan speculation though. ;)

In recent years, we've had 2 possible program ideas from Mr Child and Company that got to the Demo stage:- "KMVR" (a nice idea that sadly felt rushed, a little dumbed down, and slightly wide of the mark IMHO) and "Timegate" (To Me, this looked VERY promising. However, I get the feeling it scared those with the pursestrings but no understanding of the technologies involved.).

Could one of these be reappearing after a little evolution? Could there be a new program that combines ideas taken from both? Could Knightmare be returning in a modern form of how WE remember it? (Again possible and fingers crossed. Only time will tell.). Could we even have the chance of developement on "The Sword and the Sorceror" in a similar vein to how "Scavengers" and "Crystal Maze" were played?

... Or could this lead to many hopes and jumps for joy only to fall apart due to outside (ie Non-Fan exec) influence still high on "Brother Celebrity Circus on Ice Get me out of Here!" Quick buck for the masses "Reality" *$&%£ ?

The over-verbosity meter is flashing red so I'll shut up at that. What do folks think? Do we have something happening here (more fingers crossed)?

If we do, what?
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Re:Channel 4 to invest in Kids TV

Post by Gizensha »

Snowcat wrote: So here we have Channel 4 throwing money at Knightmares traditional demographic in one part of the forum...

And a certain "BVA" (who most have figured out the identity of by now ;) ) saying that "Something is stirring" in another part nearby.

Coincidence? Possibly. I'm up for some fan speculation though. ;)

In recent years, we've had 2 possible program ideas from Mr Child and Company that got to the Demo stage:- "KMVR" (a nice idea that sadly felt rushed, a little dumbed down, and slightly wide of the mark IMHO) and "Timegate" (To Me, this looked VERY promising. However, I get the feeling it scared those with the pursestrings but no understanding of the technologies involved.).

Could one of these be reappearing after a little evolution? Could there be a new program that combines ideas taken from both? Could Knightmare be returning in a modern form of how WE remember it? (Again possible and fingers crossed. Only time will tell.). Could we even have the chance of developement on "The Sword and the Sorceror" in a similar vein to how "Scavengers" and "Crystal Maze" were played?

... Or could this lead to many hopes and jumps for joy only to fall apart due to outside (ie Non-Fan exec) influence still high on "Brother Celebrity Circus on Ice Get me out of Here!" Quick buck for the masses "Reality" *$&%£ ?

The over-verbosity meter is flashing red so I'll shut up at that. What do folks think? Do we have something happening here (more fingers crossed)?

If we do, what?
It was my first thought, but as I said earlier, C4 revival's are extremely rare indeed. As such I would, personally, feel it more likely to be the case that, if this is a KM revival for it to be on the BBC's 10-16 year old service (Which I'd assume is in about the same stage as C4's is when it comes to being launched)

Timegate, on the other hand, feels from the trailer to be almost perfect for a C4 8pm adult slot. Or at least would have done ten years ago when C4 were still being innovative, so I'd, personally, assume that if it's Timegate it won't be on either public service broadcaster's teen service but instead aimed at adults.

...Although that's probably just me doing wishful thinking because I want to apply as a contestant for Timegate if it happens. ;D

This isn't to say you're wrong of course, simply that you're guesses aren't where I'd place my proverbial chips.
Last edited by Gizensha on 18 Mar 2008, 03:17, edited 1 time in total.
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Re:Channel 4 to invest in Kids TV

Post by Kieran »

C4 investing in something which is aimed at children?

These are strange times

This combined with Tim Child's recent message may just be linked...

P.s.. Gizensha, I see you're from Blackpool too. Nice to see a fellow KM-er who is also a fellow Blackpooler.
Last edited by Kieran on 18 Mar 2008, 10:39, edited 1 time in total.
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Re:Channel 4 to invest in Kids TV

Post by Drassil »

The Brollachan wrote: (Mostly lifted from another site...)
Channel 4 has ring-fenced £10m to spend on programmes for 10-to 15 year-olds over the next two years - with a flagship drama series set to take centre stage.



C4's move into children's TV follows ITV scaling back its kids output. "This is not a particularly commercially viable thing to do and commercial broadcasters have cut back [in this area]," said Lygo. "You're unlikely to attract a vast audience. It's a departure for us, born out of a belief in what Ofcom and others have identified as a group that's not particularly well served by television."
Article (registration required): http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/news/2008 ... utput.html

Nice to see a UK channel investing in children's TV, maybe if it's successful rival channels might follow the idea.
You're supposed to draw some connection with Knightmare (even if it's simply to mention, 'This isn't Knightmare-related as such, but you might find it interesting'). :P Luckily Snowcat has now done this.
Pooka wrote: I like Channel 4, but I've never really thought of children's TV on it.
That's a shame in my opinion, considering that 4 is the channel that brought British children Sesame Street, Pob's Programme, the Back To The Future cartoons, Ulysses 31 and Earthworm Jim, not to mention The Crystal Maze and GamesMaster.
Snowcat wrote: So here we have Channel 4 throwing money at Knightmares traditional demographic in one part of the forum...

And a certain "BVA" (who most have figured out the identity of by now ;) ) saying that "Something is stirring" in another part nearby.

Coincidence? Possibly. I'm up for some fan speculation though. ;)
Since BVA's post is only three lines long, I won't attempt to read between them. But let's just say that if by any chance Raven resurfaces on Channel 4 with a certain Mr. H. Myatt recast in the title role, you heard it here first. ;)
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Re:Channel 4 to invest in Kids TV

Post by Ironlord »

Drassil wrote:That's a shame in my opinion, considering that 4 is the channel that brought British children Sesame Street, Pob's Programme, the Back To The Future cartoons, Ulysses 31 and Earthworm Jim, not to mention The Crystal Maze and GamesMaster.
Girrrrrrrrrroovy!

Must find EJ cartoons. Somewhere. Must be... *cough*16*cough* again.
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Re:Channel 4 to invest in Kids TV

Post by Gizensha »

Drassil wrote:not to mention The Crystal Maze and GamesMaster.
Neither of which technically count as children's, I feel. the former simply had a very large children's cross demographic (I think), and the latter was more upper teens than children in target demographic - 16-20, probably (And the first two seasons [church and oil rig] were far better than S3+, S2 [oil rig] probably the overall best)
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Re:Channel 4 to invest in Kids TV

Post by Drassil »

The fact that I listed them separately from the others was acknowledgement of that. My point was simply that British children watched them (on Channel 4), and as grown-ups remember them fondly alongside the children's TV they watched. The fact that The Crystal Maze had children's specials is relevant here; and I know of quite young kids today who enjoy Crystal Maze as much as they do Raven.

One interesting thing that Crystal Maze and GamesMaster have in common is that both programmes brought in a second presenter who was significantly less popular than the first, it seemed.
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Re:Channel 4 to invest in Kids TV

Post by sozboz »

Gizensha wrote:
as more upper teens than children in target demographic - 16-20, probably (And the first two seasons [church and oil rig] were far better than S3+, S2 [oil rig] probably the overall best)
No way, Gamesmaster didn't get good until late on when it became the Dominic Diamond comedy half hour! :)
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Re:Channel 4 to invest in Kids TV

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It's actually spelt Dominik Diamond.
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Re:Channel 4 to invest in Kids TV

Post by sozboz »

JamesA wrote: It's actually spelt Dominik Diamond.
truth accepted
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Re:Channel 4 to invest in Kids TV

Post by Pooka »

We used to have a guy 'round these parts who used to post as Patrick Moore / GamesMaster. Funny stuff.
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