Children to get their own TV channel

A dedicated television channel for children will be among the recommendations from the 2020 summit to be adopted by the Federal Government.

It will be one of about six policies to be contained in the Government's final response to the hundreds of ideas generated at the 1000-strong talkfest held in Canberra last year.

The children's channel was first raised by the Howard government during the 2007 election campaign with the promise of $82 million in funding for the first four years.

Labor supported the suggestion but the Rudd Government cancelled the funding as part of its cost-cutting agenda in the federal budget last year.

The Government, which wanted to reduce pressure on inflation, funded only Labor election promises.

With inflation no longer a concern, the Herald understands the idea has been rejuvenated after it was recommended at the 2020 summit last April by the working group on creativity headed by the actress Cate Blanchett.

"The ABC would have a specific education role in classrooms and across all industry sectors. This should be supplemented by the ABC having a separate children's channel," the summit's final report recommends. The channel should provide "high quality content for children".

The ABC and the Australian Children's Television Foundation suggested at the summit that the channel be provided by ABC3, one of the national broadcaster's digital channels, which is accessible to viewers with digital receivers.

It would be commercial free and would provide more than 50 per cent Australian content.

Under the original proposal, which was shelved last year, the channel was to be tailored for children and teenagers under 17.

The ABC has already submitted to the Government its funding request for the next three years. Included in this submission was a request for money to fund the children's television channel.

The broadcaster was not expecting an answer until the budget in May, and it was unaware yesterday of any impending announcement.