Channel 4 to invest in kids output

Channel 4 has ring-fenced £10m to spend on programmes for 10-to 15 year-olds over the next two years - with a flagship drama series set to take centre stage.

C4 wants a pre-watershed drama for the age group for the second half of 2009. The aim is to combine the cultural impact of the BBC's Grange Hill in its heyday with the slick, multi-media approach of C4's older-skewing Hollyoaks and Skins.

"Grange Hill had a fantastic connection to this age group," said C4 director of television and content Kevin Lygo. "If we could achieve what it did - that sense of engagement - and create a great level of involvement using digital media, that would be a big win."

Lygo said he was looking for an aspirational contemporary drama that would not preach to its audience and would make a lot of noise at its launch. It would run across E4 and Channel 4, most likely in a weekend slot, as well as online.

Although drama is C4's initial focus, Lygo said the broadcaster was looking for ideas with PSB credentials from any genre.

"My inclination is to do one or two big things rather than 20 little ones," he said. However, he emphasised: "We're not looking for the new Blue Peter."

C4's move into children's TV follows ITV scaling back its kids output. "This is not a particularly commercially viable thing to do and commercial broadcasters have cut back [in this area]," said Lygo. "You're unlikely to attract a vast audience. It's a departure for us, born out of a belief in what Ofcom and others have identified as a group that's not particularly well served by television."

If the children's programming on Channel 4 is successful then it might just kick rival channels (notably ITV) into copying the idea and investing more in children's programming.

A cynic (not me) might suggest that this is a way of making C4 appear more deserving of a slice of the licence fee pie? Or whatever new PSB funding scheme is invented in the near future.