Australian Children's TV Drops 42% as Commercial Networks Exit

The Screen Australia Screen Currency 2026 report reveals that average annual broadcasting time for Australian-made children's television dropped 42% between 2021 and 2024 compared to the 2000-2020 average. This decline follows the removal of government quotas that previously required commercial networks Seven, Nine, and Ten to broadcast 260 hours of children's programming annually.

Commercial broadcasters have effectively stopped commissioning the genre, shifting their budgets toward news and sports. This shift has left the Australian Broadcasting Corporation as the primary producer of first-run children's television. Additionally, broadcast drama saw a 12.4% decline during the same period.

Streaming services including Netflix, Stan, and Amazon Prime Video have emerged as significant investors in local content. This trend is driven by 2025 obligations requiring these platforms to invest a percentage of their revenue or expenditure into Australian drama, children's, and educational programming. Despite the decline in specific broadcast genres, the broader Australian screen and games sector grew to contribute over $11bn to the economy in the 2023-24 financial year.