In the dynamic media environment we have in Australia, broadcasting regulation has become an exceptionally tricky exercise. If regulations are to work, they require creative application and on-going monitoring as commercial players will always seek to outmanoeuvre them, especially when they affect programming decisions. Bureaucracies move slowly. It takes time to define, then to pass legislation and once regulations are in place, too often assumptions are made that the job is done. That may be the case in legislating for seat belts or banning smoking in public spaces, but when the desired outcome is a cultural, educational purpose, where judgments must be made about appropriate program content, it is a very different matter. For culturally-based children’s programming to succeed today, a simpler regulatory approach than quotas and program approval should be taken.
When the Children’s Television Standards (CTS) were first enacted to ensure quality Australian content for children, a diversity of excellent programming resulted for a few years, during which time an international Australian children’s production industry was established. But this was not achieved without struggle and conflict between the regulator and the networks. It has been forgotten how strongly the broadcasters fought against the regulation of children’s content, even taking the ABT (Australian Broadcasting Tribunal) to the Federal Court and winning their case. That decision forced the Government’s hand and they amended the Broadcasting Act to ensure the ABT had the power to require networks to meet the regulations or be in breach of their licence.
When implemented, the Australian system of regulation of children’s programs was the envy of many children’s producers around the world and seen as a model for other countries. It was a good model, but it took only a few years before both the networks and certain producers found ways to exploit the system. Networks complied with the law, with the least possible expenditure of funds, often burying programs in their schedule with no promotion, and certain independent producers made hay. Cheaper, unimaginative animation, created for the international market, became accepted as equivalent to original Australian drama. Long-running series, with no obvious cultural context, that could have been made anywhere in the world, were devised by Australian producers who ran successful businesses in partnership with overseas broadcasters, supplying them with a regular source of programs generously subsidized by the Australian tax-payer. In some cases Australian ‘producers’ fronted programs that were scripted and creatively controlled overseas but using Australian funding. Continue reading
