Tough times for kids TV and long-form docs
Less funding, lower discoverability and competition with streamers and social media has put these genres at a disadvantage. But changes in government regulation and creative solutions could help.
J.J. Johnson, co-founder of Sinking Ship Entertainment, a production company that specializes in kids and youth content, has firsthand evidence why the TV and film programming he works in is at risk.
“I see it with my own kids who are turning off shows I’ve created in favour of watching something on YouTube,” Johnson says of his eight-year-old and six-year-old. He also has an 11-month-old who is likely to follow in their elder siblings’ footsteps.
Johnson isn’t imagining the downturn. Corus Entertainment recently announced it will stop distributing five kids channels later this year because of low ad revenue — Nickelodeon, ABC Spark, Disney XD, Disney Jr. and La Chaine Disney.
Financial challenges for kids and youth programming
As part of the team behind successful shows like Odd Squad and the Dino Brand, which includes TV series Dino Dan and Dino Dana and the Dino Dana feature-length film, Johnson is no stranger to the struggles that kids producers have faced over the years. But the challenges have become greater.
“The main factors hitting kids TV productions are a drop in pickups from global networks and streamers, including key local Canadian buyers, coupled with diminished distribution revenue from international territories,” Johnson explains. “Kids content has always been kind of marginalized in our industry or looked at as a ‘nice to have.’”
Lisa Broadfoot, vice president of industry and business affairs at the Canadian Media Producers Association, echoes Johnson’s sentiments, adding that advertising regulations for kids TV programming make it less lucrative for broadcasters, and less likely that projects will be picked up and renewed.
“It doesn't generate the same kind of ad revenues as other types of content because there are, understandably, restrictions on advertising to children,” says Broadfoot. “Without regulatory intervention, broadcasters have very little reason to commission kids content.”
Funding changes challenge genres already at risk
Kids TV has long been at risk because of ad revenues and competing platforms.
Canada’s broadcast regulator, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), has long required Canadian broadcasters to commission a certain amount of culturally relevant yet difficult-to-monetize Canadian content. In the past, these rules have helped bolster Canadian kids and youth programming.
Over time, however, some of these protections were reduced or removed. In 2015, the CRTC introduced changes that gave broadcasters greater flexibility in their programming choices and content investments, aiming to help them compete with the growing competition from online platforms and streaming services.
“You can really see it drop off a cliff from 2015 onwards,” Broadfoot says. “That was a direct result of changes to the regulatory environment.”
Socially responsive long-form docs also at risk
There’s a wide variety of sub-categories within documentary film and TV, and some are more at risk than others.
Reality programming and documentary series — particularly about celebrities, true crime and sports — are less at risk, according to Broadfoot and Julian Carrington, the executive director of the Documentary Organization of Canada.
Carrington is more concerned about another category — politically and socially responsive documentaries. “Streamers and distribution partners cater to broad audiences with entertaining content that would not risk alienating any audience segment,” Carrington explains.
He offers Union as an example of a project facing headwinds. The documentary co-directed by Canadian filmmaker Brett Story follows a group of Amazon workers on their campaign to unionize. “It premiered at Sundance last year,” says Carrington. “It was widely acclaimed, it was shortlisted for the Oscar, but no major streamer or distributor would touch it.”
He’s also worried that increased input from streaming studios is homogenizing or industrializing documentary film.
“Studios are offering notes to filmmakers,” he says. “For example, ‘Around the 10-minute mark, you should have your protagonist encounter some challenge.’ That makes sense if you're giving notes on a script. But with non-fiction, that's not traditionally how things work. It puts the essence of documentary at risk.”
Carrington says another fear is that documentaries about issues in smaller Canadian regions aren’t being told. “We've seen the National Film Board have to close regional offices,” he says. “We've seen the consolidation of the media space, which has meant the closure of some regional outlets. The result is that documentary makers outside of major centres like Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver don't have the opportunities to access resources to tell local stories in the way that they used to.”
Creative solutions and regulatory changes can make a difference
There’s much we stand to lose, as an industry and a society, if kids programming and socially responsive long-form documentaries aren’t adequately supported.
“Kids content travels to more places,” says Johnson. “From my own experience, it's the main training ground for crews and creative teams as they work their way up to longer-form adult content.”
There are things that can be done to improve the situation.
Broadfoot wants to see regulations that require global streamers to commission more Canadian content in at-risk categories, like kids TV.
Streamers could also be obligated to prioritize Canadian programming in their algorithms, improving discoverability. Carrington suggests a mandate that follows the UK and Australia, where new smart TVs and devices are preloaded with apps from local public broadcasters. Quebec’s newly tabled Bill 109 seeks a similar system to make French content more easily discoverable.
“In Canada, I’d love to see devices come with the CBC Gem or the National Film Board’s app preinstalled,” says Carrington.
Producers have to get creative, too. Johnson says that while AI is challenging traditional animation studios, it can also be used to help streamline costs. “We have to figure out how to produce our content less expensively,” he says. “That might be leaning on AI to do more and go bigger with less cost. We can't be afraid of technology.”
Having a strong presence on social media, like YouTube, can also help discoverability and bring more viewers back to traditional forms of watching. Johnson is also exploring ways to work with brands to create content or partner with charitable foundations on shows with a shared social-impact mission statement.
Despite the challenges ahead, Johnson is hopeful that kids in Canada, like his three little ones, will continue to have inspiring and culturally relevant sources of kids TV content in the future. “It’s worth the fight, particularly in the kids industry,” Johnson says. “We’ll do whatever we have to do to make sure that we’re finding ways to make more of this content.”
