Our Children’s Future: Does Public Service Media Matter?

Our Children’s Future: Does Public service Media Matter is a report published by UK advocacy body, the Children’s Media Foundation. It takes the form of a multi-authored discussion on various aspects of public service media and its relationship to young people in Britain in 2021 and looks forward to consider the years ahead.

The report was commissioned in the context of reviews of public service media by the regulator Ofcom, and Parliamentary Select Committees, and government interest in various aspects of the public service media landscape - including: the future ownership of Channel 4; the future of the pilot Young Audiences Content Fund which supported commercial public service broadcasters by enhancing the budgets available for commissioning, and the future of The BBC and the television licence fee. The Report’s focus on young people is especially relevant because any discussion of the future prospects for public service content is significantly impacted by the flight of young audiences to on-demand services - either the huge international streaming services such as Netflix or Disney+, or online social media platforms such as YouTube or Tik Tok.

Authors of chapters for this Report analyse how the young audiences reached this new relationship with content and how that affects the future of conventional broadcasting and the regulatory status quo. They also consider innovative ways in which new futures for public service content funding, delivery and commissioning could play out.

The report is an invaluable contribution to the discussion of the future of this vital part of the UK’s media landscape, and its special reference to the children’s and youth audience are unique in the current exploration of the debate.