Members of Britain's House of Commons will meet today to debate the preservation of locally produced children's TV for the first time, reports C21 MEDIA. The debate was organized by Performer's Alliance Parliamentary Group, a cross-party group of MPs supported by Pact, the TV trade group, as part of the ongoing campaign to protect British kids TV.
Led by Performer's Alliance Secretary Neil Gerrard MP, the action aims to urge the government to address issues contained in reports by media regulator Ofcom and the House of Commons culture select committee on the future of children's programming. Both reports concluded that U.K.-made children's programming is a significant part of public service broadcasting and is seriously threatened.
Pact has created both a petition on the prime minister's official website and dedicated a part of its site (www.pact.co.uk/campaign) to enable the public to send letters to their local representatives asking them to take action.
"The aim of today's debate in Westminster is to ask the government for immediate intervention," said John Mcvay, Pact's chief exec. "Both Ofcom and the culture select committee agree there is a problem and the Communications Act says that U.K.-made children's TV is a valuable public service and there should be a range of children's programming.
"The question is, is the government content that this range is met by the BBC, which is the only significant source of U.K. children's programming for the next few years, and if not, when will it act?"
