“Deep Concern” Over Sky Kids Commissioning Move

The Children’s Media Foundation has expressed its “surprise and deep concern” that Sky is ceasing kids’ commissioning.

Sky Kids has built up a stable of 150 originals, with 13 new ones arriving over the next two years alongside returning seasons. It is now shifting its focus entirely to acquisitions.

“Sky Kids has built an extensive library of high-quality and award-winning original programming and third-party content that continues to engage and delight young audiences,” Jamie Morris, executive director of content strategy and performance at Sky, said in a statement. “With a strong pipeline of new original shows still to come, we now have a rich slate of content that allows us to evolve our strategy. In the future, Sky Kids will focus on acquiring third-party content. While this means reviewing the number of roles required to deliver the next phase of our offer, we remain committed to bringing the very best in children’s entertainment to families across the U.K.”

“This is a depressing and short-sighted decision, which will leave U.K. children less well-served,” the Children’s Media Foundation said in a statement. “Sky Kids content has gained a reputation among parents and young people as high value, rich, thoughtful as well as fun. This is what our children need more than ever in the face of competition for their attention from high-volume, cheaply made content that dominates the YouTube offering.”

The foundation notes that while the “economics of children’s content are increasingly difficult in the face of competition from YouTube…giving up on young people is not the right option. This decision leaves the BBC and 5’s Milkshake! as the only significant commissioners of factual and entertainment content for children in the U.K.—not a position the public service broadcaster wishes to see, and not good for the audience. Healthy competition was provided by Sky, and healthier kids were the outcome of its program offering.”

The foundation is urging Sky to reconsider the decision and maintain a level of commission to “support the already badly hit children’s media” and enable U.K. kids to “experience their own stories and hear their own voices.”

Greg Childs, director of the CMF, said, “This is not the time to give up on great U.K. content for U.K. kids. Just as we are working with government and platforms like YouTube to help children and young people find more personally and socially valuable content on video-sharing platforms, Sky is walking away from its kids’ audience. What’s needed is fresh thinking about deals and partnerships that take their content to where kids are watching, not a knee-jerk cost-cutting spree which will damage their relationship with their customers and certainly diminish the prospects of quality viewing time for children in their country.”