Screen Australia and the Australian Children’s Television Foundation (ACTF) have used this year’s Children’s Content Summit to launch a new initiative to develop Australian children’s IP for digital platforms such as YouTube, Roblox, and FAST.
Up to eight teams will be chosen to participate in the three-month program, which includes an in-person workshop at the ACTF’s Melbourne offices in March next year.
Teams will also receive a grant of up to $20,000 to develop their projects throughout this phase.
Following the first in-person workshop teams will attend online masterclasses from industry experts, before a second in-person workshop at the end of the three months, where teams will refine their pitch and be invited to apply for a second round of development funding.
After the initiative, creative teams can apply for further development or production funding to continue their project.
Screen Australia CEO Deirdre Brennan said the agency was pleased to assist with the creation of “culturally relevant and appropriate content for today’s children”.
“Australia has a proud history of creating memorable children’s content that resonates globally,” she said.
“As the screen landscape evolves, we need to support our creators to seize new opportunities, contributing to a sustainable ecosystem for the production of children’s content into the future.”
According to ACMA data, YouTube took the top place from Netflix as the most popular platform for watching online content (51 per cent versus 45 per cent) last year.
The research also indicated young Australians aged 18-24 watched more user-generated or short-form online video content (11.1 hours on average) than any other cohort.
ACTF CEO Jenny Buckland said it would be perilous to ignore that children were gravitating more toward digital platforms, but noted success in these spaces required a different mindset.
“What I love about this partnership with Screen Australia is that we’re encouraging the teams involved to experiment in a collaborative environment where we all learn and lift each other up,” she said.
“As well as supporting innovative new content from new and experienced players, I think the initiative will influence us and the way that we support content in the future, too.”
Applications for the Kids IP Incubator project open on Thursday, September 19. A free webinar about the initiative will be held on September 26. Find more details here.