Children`s television outside the box down under

It is true that we have just started to scratch the surface of the link between television and the internet, but in Australia the connection is starting to become a reality with a little help from Korean producers.

The Australian government recently announced they would provide enough funding for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation to start a new television channel solely dedicated to children`s programming.

"If you`re going to have a new channel, you have to think about how to deliver that new material on different platforms like mobile phones, computers and allow for the interaction and web based materials," said Michael Miller, Australia-Korea Foundation board member.

Miller was in town recently with an Australian children`s television and digital content industry delegation to look for opportunities to link Australian companies with their local counterparts.

"We are also looking at whether some groups like the creators, the producers and the broadcasters can develop a program with their peers in Korea," he said. "Then you would have a much bigger realm of possibilities."



Miller explained that the new Australian children`s channel would focus on collaboration and business from the point of view of e-learning, amusement, English education "and the things that often tied up together in the children`s content space."

Because of the financial downturn right now, most production houses find it necessary to work with partners in other countries to fund the production and also to find the audiences they need to justify making those shows.

During his stay in Seoul, Miller visited with the execs at KBS, which is suffering from some cutbacks to their children programming.

"Seems to be that children`s programming is the first to go when there is a financial crisis, so maybe our timing is good because they`re really keen to look at coproduction possibilities for their purposes as well as ours."

This new world for children`s programming would allow the young viewers to be part of the show instead of just watching it on the boob tube.

"The shows that are booming in terms of grabbing kids` attention are those shows where, in some ways, they can have their own input like in IPTV. They can do it all in one box. That`s why this multiplatform approach is incredible," he said.

IPTV, or internet protocol television, is a system through which digital television service is delivered using the architecture and networking methods of the internet and broadband internet access networks, instead of being delivered through traditional radio frequency broadcast, satellite signal, and cable television formats.

"There`s a desire to provide a mechanism whereby kids can, in these programs, network with each other," he said.

For example, instead of playing a game against the computer, children will be able to play a game that was introduced by one of the shows against each other.

"That`s pretty much the thinking in Korea and Australia so in that sense there`s an opportunity to work together," Miller said.

The next step, Miller explained is a scenario whereby children can create a video to illustrate a certain point about their lives and send it to the program about to air.

Of course the thinking now for broadcasters will have to become more flexible in their content delivery to accept content from the public and have it aired after it was screened and filtered.

Another interesting platform Australian broadcasters are looking at is giving the children virtually full access as to which direction a particular story will be told, much like a director tells a story in a movie.

"Now we are looking for extra content so it`s an opportunity for Korean companies to offer their wears," he said.

"It`s a new world and I think that`s going to be a very fruitful thing to work on because we have a lot of commonality about our thinking and about how that might work out in the future."

Miller added that many of these new platforms can be applied to the news business also.

"The news is not much different to tell a story than it is to tell a story to kids. If you want to capture a new audience in this day and age you`re going to have think creatively and not present it in the traditional sense."

(yoav@heraldm.com)







By Yoav Cerralbo