ABC 1

Hopefully you haven’t been to busy watching "So You Think You Can Dance Australia" to notice the new ABC1 promos popping up on Aunty. They utilise a broad range of animation techniques and combine them with live action in ways that create a thoughtful and reflective feel. Quite a contrast to the commercial channels that have over recent months rolled out another bunch of predictable, “Hey we are so much fun, come and hang out with us like we are your old friend,” drivel.

Speaking of the ABC, there is talk floating about of a possible new ABC channel devoted just to children’s entertainment that must contain a high percentage of Australian made content. If this were to happen it would be super good news for the Australian animation industry. At the moment I would guess that there is less than 3 hours of Aussie made animation on TV in any given day, just imagine the difference a whole channel devoted to entertaining the kiddies with locally produced content could make.

Dare I encourage our younger readers to actually take political action? Here is a link to the web site for the federal minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Stephen Conroy. Why not send him an email (minister@dbcde.gov.au) say how great it would be for your future if there was a new ABC channel just for children’s content, get your parents involved too, in fact get anyone you know who can vote to join in. This is no time to be cynical, get the democracy working for you.

Found at: idents.tv

2 comments:

Sam said...

It sounds like the proposed ABC3 dedicated kids channel might not be saviour you're looking for.

I'd read elsewhere that Howard wanted it to feature at least 50% locally produced content, which is promising. But this opinion-piece in the SMH suggests that the budget of only $82m will mean there won't be much to throw at creating new content, it'll be a whole lot of Bananas in Pyjamas re-runs.

Considering that (I'm assuming) animation is more expensive to produce than live action kids shows like Ocean Girl or Totally Wild, it might be hard to get a look in.

Still, any more opportunities than what we already have will be a welcome bonus.

Ian said...

Sounds like even more reasons to get pro active on their asses. Let em know how much would mean to you. :)