£57M Young Audiences Content Fund announces first slate
Skwigly
The Young Audiences Content Fund (YACF) has announced its first slate of production and development awards, indicating the significant positive impact it is having on the sector. In just six months, the Fund – managed by the BFI and made possible with up to £57m Government funding – is co-funding a mix of nine series and specials, across six broadcasters: Channel 5, ITV, BBC ALBA, S4C, TG4 and Sky.
This exciting initial slate embraces all techniques, genres and audiences, from factual entertainment for preschoolers to gripping drama for teens. It is also contributing to the Fund’s 5% target for indigenous language content.
Among the upcoming projects are the preschool mixed media drama Mimi’s World (Channel 5’s Milkshake!) and SOL (BBC ALBA, S4C and TG4), an animation tackling the topic of grief.
Mimi’s World (Adastra Development) is a mixed media preschool drama for 3-6 year-olds, which explores everyday feelings and celebrates imaginary and creative worlds, with a big sprinkling of magic.
SOL (Paper Owl Films Ltd) is a co-commission from BBC ALBA, S4C and TG4 and will be produced in three different languages: Welsh, Irish Gaelic and Scottish Gaelic. Telling the story of young Sol’s imaginary quest to save the world, following the death of his gran, this innovative and touching animation will help 8-11 year-olds understand the nature of grief.
The slate will also include the live action shows Meet the Experts (Channel 5’s Milkshake!), How! (CITV), Lachlan, Balach aig a’ Mhullach / Boy at the Top (BBC ALBA), FYI Specials (Fresh News TV, Sky News, Sky Kids), Rùn / Secret (BBC ALBA), Person/A (S4C) and Y Gyfrinach/The Secret (S4C).
In addition, 15 Development Awards for a number of ambitious projects signals this is just a taste of things to come from UK talent working in this space. The YACF was devised to reinvigorate the sector and is set to be a game changer in the creation of high-quality new original programming for children and young people on free-to-access, Ofcom regulated services.
I am delighted with the positive impact of the Young Audiences Content Fund in its first six months. We need to continue to produce home-grown and original content that inspires our younger generation and is representative of the world they live in.
It’s fantastic to see the Fund is helping really creative and inspiring projects happen and I encourage broadcasters to continue in their positive engagement with it.
-Culture Secretary Nicky Morgan
We have been thrilled by the quality of the applications, but it is the commitment and level of partnership from the Broadcasters that is helping ensure the positive impact of the Fund. By them seizing the opportunities the Fund offers, and opening up their schedules and their budgets, we are bringing brilliant new content to children and young people. I am truly excited by what we can achieve together, and having awarded almost £3.8m in the first months of the Fund, I am confident we can do so much more!
-Jackie Edwards, Head of the Young Audiences Content Fund
Addressing a historic lack of investment in content creation for this age group, the Fund is backing projects that entertain, inform and reflect young audiences’ experiences of growing up across the UK today, driving plurality in the sector by stimulating public service broadcasters to invest into this content for young audiences.
Since the Fund launched in April 2019, it has been embraced by the UK production community, with over 120 applications and counting. Enthusiasm from producers and broadcasters alike has led to greenlighting these initial nine shows, and signals a very positive start to the three-year pilot.
The slate is successfully responding to the areas of concern outlined by Ofcom’s Children’s Content Review, with the majority of awards going to programmes specifically made for older children, content to help young people understand the world around them and a chance to see their UK children’s lives, in all its diversity, reflected on screen.
The introduction of the Young Audiences Content Fund and ITV’s increased investment in CITV has given us the opportunity to realise more of our creative ambitions in live action programming dedicated to our audience of UK kids and we have greenlit several non-scripted commissions. Possibly more significant, however, is our ability to get back into UK-originated scripted programming, something only possible with the assistance of the YACF.
-Paul Mortimer, Head of Digital Channels & Acquisitions ITV
To find out more about the Young Audiences Content Fund, please visit: www.bfi.org.uk/yacf