Since the late 1970s, Australia has nurtured a creative and resilient children’s television production sector with a global reputation for excellence. Providing a systematic analysis of the creative, economic, regulatory, and technological factors that shape the production of contemporary Australian children’s television for digital regimes, Creativity, Culture and Commerce charts the complex new settlements in children’s television that developed from 2001 to 2014 and describes the challenges inherent in producing culturally specific screen content for global markets. It also calls for new public debate around the provision of high-quality screen content for children, arguing that the creation of public value must sit at the center of these discussions.

Much like the rest of the traditional television industry, children’s programming is undergoing a revolution. In this book, Anna Potter provides a detailed insider account of the creative circumstances that are transforming contemporary children’s screen content and reshaping the surrounding digital media landscape. Drawing on extended interviews with leading screen industry figures, Potter explores television’s distribution revolution and reveals how creative practices, funding models, and production norms in children’s TV have adapted to fit the changing times. 

Combining comprehensive case studies, scholarly research, and industry perspectives, Potter presents a rigorous study of success stories in the children’s screen production sector. The book explores effects on the industry from disruptions by streaming giants like Netflix, Amazon, and YouTube, and describes the challenges faced by public service broadcasters like the BBC in their efforts to stay relevant to adolescent culture in the UK. Interdisciplinary and informative, this volume is compulsory reading for anyone struggling to make sense of television’s distribution revolution and what it means for children and young people.