Children’s Content Discoverability in the Streaming Era

This roundtable discussion brings together industry leaders with research experts to discuss the challenge of “discoverability” of local and age-appropriate content in the era of streaming. This issue of discoverability is a source of major current industry and policy concern, central to Federal Government inquiries like the Prominence Framework for Connected TV Devices and raised by Screen Australia as a pressing issue in relation to the new National Cultural Policy. This panel will discuss scholarly and industry perspectives around how children use streaming services, and how best to ensure local and age-appropriate content is accessible and identifiable for children on streaming platforms.

Speakers
Chair: Alexa Scarlata, media and cultural industries scholar
Jenny Buckland, CEO of Australian Children’s Television Foundation
Libbie Doherty, Head of Children’s Content, ABC
Annie Jackson, Content Coordinator, Children’s Multiplatform, ABC
Jessica Balanzategui, Senior Lecturer in Media, RMIT University 

Alexa Scarlata is a scholar of media and cultural industries. She has a special interest in internet distributed television, content production and national screen policy. Alexa’s PhD thesis (University of Melbourne, 2022) was entitled ‘A Stream Come True? The Rise of Online TV in Australia and its Impact on Drama Production (2015-2020)’. This research found that while online TV has provided rather limited support for the development of original Australian television drama, it has proven advantageous for the distribution of existing local drama and the likely future production of content with an increasingly global focus. In recent years, Alexa has worked on the Australian Research Council Discovery Project, ‘Internet-Distributed Television: Cultural, Industrial and Policy Dynamics’ with Ramon Lobato, Amanda Lotz and Stuart Cunningham. Alexa is currently working with Ramon Lobato on the Australian Research Council Future Fellowship Project, ‘Television in the platform ecosystem’, which is investigating smart TV software and its implications for television distribution and consumer access to content. Alexa is the Reviews Editor of the Journal of Digital Media and Policy and a 2022 recipient of the CHOICE/ADM+S Consumer Advocacy Placement.

Jenny Buckland is the CEO of the Australian Children’s Television Foundation. Jenny has played a key role in positioning the ACTF as a national children’s media and policy hub, and growing the business to become one of the most successful international marketers of children’s television programs. It was Jenny who originally floated the proposal for an Australian children’s digital television channel, which culminated in the establishment of ABC3 in 2009. Formerly the General Manager and Marketing Manager of the ACTF, Jenny has extensive experience in television distribution, business, financial and legal affairs.

Libbie Doherty is Head of Children’s Content at the ABC, and is responsible for the Content Strategy with oversight of 300+ hours of internally produced and commissioned content across the ABC’s two dedicated children’s channels, ABCME (6-12yrs) and ABC KIDS (2-6yrs). As a member of the ABC's TV & Radio leadership team, she contributes to the ABC’s audiences, production and business strategy by building quality and distinctive programming, with local and international financing partners that delivers to existing and new ABC audiences.

Annie Jackson is Content Co-ordinator, Children’s Multiplatform at the ABC, working with strategy around children’s content distribution for ABC’s two dedicated children’s channels, ABCME (6-12yrs) and ABC KIDS (2-6yrs). Annie has worked on children’s content across ABC’s multiplatform offerings since 2012.

Jessica Balanzategui is a Senior Lecturer in Media at RMIT University. Her research speciality is screen genres for and about children, particularly how they are impacted by techno-industrial change and changing cultural definitions of childhood. This work has been widely published in leading international journals including New Media and Society, Convergence, The Journal of Visual Culture, Television and New Media, and Celebrity Studies. Jessica’s books include The Uncanny Child in Transnational Cinema (Amsterdam UP, 2018) and Netflix, Dark Fantastic Genres, and Intergenerational Viewing (with Baker and Sandars, Routledge, 2023). She is the Founding Editor of Amsterdam University Press's Horror and Gothic Medi

This event is being held as part of RMIT University's Social Change Symposium and What is Children's Content in the Streaming Era? Issues, Tensions, Controversies, an initiative of the RMIT-based Streaming Industries & Genre Network, supported by the Social Change Enabling Impact Platform.