UK TV’s $60M Young Audiences Content Fund To Close After Three Years

The UK government’s £44M ($60M) Young Audiences Content Fund (YACF), which has gone some way to addressing steep declines in the nation’s commercial children’s TV market, is to wind down next month.

Although the BFI, the fund’s operator, had hoped that it would be extended beyond its initial three-year period, the government has stated that no additional funding will be provided. Although the BBC has its financial problems, the money was taken from unallocated BBC license fee income.

Launching in 2019 and run by former BBC Children’s exec Jackie Edwards, the YACF supported 55 shows into production including the likes of Channel 4 spin-off The First Dates of TeensCITV’sTake-Awayand Channel 5 strand Milkshake!’sThe World According to Grandpa.

It supported 144 projects, and helped niche channels like BBC Alba and S4C to get off the ground.

Producers are invited to submit final applications no later than February 25,

The BFI today stated in a statement that the fund has been liquidated. “given young people all over theUKthe opportunity to watch and engage with originalUK programming on free-to-access, regulated platforms, reflecting their lives, hopes and fears, and educating, entertaining and inspiring them.”

It highlighted other successes like the support that was provided to young men during lockdown.

The fund was launched to address declines in the UK’s commercial children’s TV market, which saw spend dip heavily after junk food advertising was banned during these shows in the mid-noughties.

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