WHAT CHILDREN WATCH - Ofcom

Children’s animation
Hours devoted to children’s animation on terrestrial channels
Hours
1,400
1,200
1,000
800
600
400
200
0 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001
Hours 1,252 985 1,108 1,201 1,280 1,381
■ GMTV ■ Five ■ C4 ■ ITV1 ■ BBC2 ■ BBC1
Source: BARB, Monday-Sunday
■ Back in 1996, the provision of animation was more equally distributed between the
channels than any other genre, but since then there have been significant changes in
supply. Following sharp falls in output from BBC1 and Channel 4, the total number of
hours of animation fell from 1,252 (1996) to 985 hours in 1997.
■ Between 1997-2000, BBC1’s animation output continued to decline from 251 to 210
hours, picking up again in 2001 to 252 hours.
■ Over the same period, ITV1’s supply has remained fairly consistent. As BBC2 has
strengthened its position as the key terrestrial provider of children’s television, so has its
role as the supplier of animation expanded, with output increasing from 253 hours in
1997 to 437 hours in 2001.
■ Although it was the move away from animation on BBC1 that led to the fall in
provision across the terrestrial networks in 1997, the total hours devoted to this genre
on BBC channels (1 and 2) increased marginally from 682 hours in 1996 to 689 hours
in 2001.
■ Animated output on GMTV increased from 91 hours in 1997 to a high of 170 in
2000 - a rise of 87%, falling back in 2001 to 127 hours (a decrease of 25%).
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