The Australian Children’s Television Foundation (ACTF) is continuing to work closely with streaming platforms to build a new path for the kids sector, announcing a new partnership with Netflix that will fund the development of two new original Australian children’s series.
Creatives are being invited to submit ideas for the Celebrate Australia initiative, which will incorporate one live-action series aimed at primary or tween audiences, and one animation series aimed at preschoolers that celebrate Australia in some way.
The successful concepts, which must be early-stage development, will then be funded to develop a full series bible, storylines, and pilot script, with the intention to move to further development if required or be considered for a commission and financing by Netflix and ACTF.
The partnership comes just over six months after the ACTF calling for pitches aimed at children’s, family or tween/teen audiences as part of a partnership with fellow streamer Stan.
ACTF CEO Jenny Buckland told IF the organisation had approached Netflix to partner in funding one new title but that they had come back with the idea of doing two, adding they were trying “very hard” to get the streamers involved in children’s television landscape,
“The ABC has always been in a space where they are really looking to break new ground and have the best of the best,” she said.
“But we were in a situation when the commercial broadcasters were more engaged that often they were looking for that lower end content that they didn’t have to pay as much for and there wasn’t as much focus on the audience.
“The streamers don’t want to waste time on content audiences aren’t going to be drawn to or attracted to, so I think the bar is being substantially lifted.
“They’re looking for really high quality content, which is great for Australia because that is what we do.”
Buckland appeared alongside ACTF head of content Bernadette O’Mahony at Screen Forever on Tuesday, where they discussed the health of the Australian children’s television sector, while also marking the 40th anniversary of the organisation.
While the relaxation of the fixed local content quotas on free-to-air commercial networks means there is no mandate for any broadcaster or platform to produce local content for children, the ACTF has been able to increase spending on development and invest higher amounts in commissioned productions via two-year $20 million boost in funding that came into effect last July.
More than half the funds have been committed, with the organisation spending nearly $750,000 on development so far in this financial year.
Buckland said the ACTF’s current investment level was “phenominally higher” than what it had previously been.
“In the past, we may have been able to put investment into 1-2 projects a year, where at the moment, we have made forward commitments to three, six are in production, and six have been completed in the last 18 months,” she said.
“So it’s certainly meant we’re investing in a lot more content, both in terms of shows where we’ve made small investments and other shows where we’ve made very very large investments.
“The market has decreased because the commercial broadcasters are not really in the space but the alternative is the streamers coming and looking for Australian content, so it is hopefully building back up, perhaps into something a bit different.”
Submissions for the Netflix and ACTF partnership will be accepted from April 30 to May 31. Find out more details here.