Screen Australia and the Australian Children’s Television Foundation (ACTF) used this year’s Children’s Content Summit to launch a new initiative to develop Australian children’s IP for digital platforms such as YouTube, Roblox and FAST.
Up to eight teams will be selected to participate in the three-month program. The program will include an in-person workshop at ACTF’s Melbourne office in March next year.
Teams will also receive grants of up to $20,000 to develop their projects through this phase.
Following the first in-person workshop, teams will attend an online masterclass with industry experts, followed by a second in-person workshop at the end of three months. There, teams will be asked to hone their pitch and apply for a second round of development funding.
After this effort, the creative team can apply for further development or production funding to continue the project.
Screen Australia chief executive Deirdre Brennan said the station was happy to support the creation of “content that is culturally appropriate and relevant for today’s children”.
“Australia has a proud history of creating memorable children’s content that resonates around the world,” she said.
“As the screen landscape evolves, we need to support creators in seizing new opportunities and contribute to a sustainable ecosystem for creating children’s content into the future.”
Last year, YouTube took over the top spot from Netflix as the most popular platform for watching online content (51% vs. 45%), according to ACMA data.
The research also showed that young Australians aged 18-24 watch more user-generated or short-form online video content (11.1 hours on average) than any other cohort.
ACTF CEO Jenny Buckland said it was dangerous to ignore that children were increasingly drawn to digital platforms, but that success in these areas required a different mindset.
“What I love about this partnership with Screen Australia is that it encourages the teams involved to experiment in a collaborative environment where we all learn and build each other up,” she said. said.
“In addition to supporting innovative new content from new and experienced players, we think this initiative will also impact us and how we support content in the future.”
Applications for the Kids IP Incubator project will open on Thursday, September 19th. A free webinar on this initiative will be held on September 26th. Click here for more information.
