Like many foundations doing work for children, the internationally recognized Prix Jeunesse, is a leanly staffed organization. It is based in Munich and has been doing credible work for decades.

Recently, at the Asian Media Summit in Macau, Prix Jeunesse succeeded in inserting into the agenda a morning pre-conference on the state of children’s’ TV in Asia. Anak TV was asked to contribute the segment about the Philippine landscape. We submitted it with trepidation because the reality might put the country in a bad light. It is common knowledge that we offer our children very scant TV materials fit for them.

It was therefore a surprise when the passionate Kirsten Schneid presented the results of their Asia-wide study. The Philippines did not occupy the cellar after all. While we did not fare too well, we did not place embarrassingly either.

The study surveyed 20 Asian countries for two weeks. The results are rather revealing.

Pakistan, Bangladesh and Vietnam are countries with huge child and youth populations but with hardly any kiddie programs to speak of. Whatever children’s programs they air are mostly imported. The situation is different in China, Japan, Nepal and Mongolia. They make certain that they give their kids mostly locally produced materials, encouraging where possible, the production of home grown TV shows designed for consumption by children! All over Asia, 21 percent of kids’ programs are telecast on what is the equivalent of a Public Broadcasting System (PBS) while a whopping 79 per cent is generated by commercial channels. The most common leading sources of kids’ programs are Cartoon Network, Disney and Nickelodeon. The US is the origin of up to 57 percent of children’s programs aired in Asia. Following America are Japan, the United Kingdom, France, Canada and Korea. The most frequently targeted age group among kids is the 6 to 9 year old sector with 44 percent of children’s programs addressing them.

This must be the reason why the Asian Broadcasting Union has zeroed in on the age range for its item exchange program. In this novel trade off, a producer offers four of his items and is allowed to take in and freely air up to 200 items received from his participating counterparts.

Regrettably, the Philippines is not active in this program simply because we have little to offer for the exchange.

Thanks to Prix Jeunesse, UNESCO and Goethe Institut, several ASEAN countries are being
pooled together soon to jumpstart the production of a science edutainment program which will enjoy telecast in the participating countries for at least two seasons.

The idea is to gather the interested PBS groups of every country and collectively conceptualize, research, write, and produce ten minute clips that will entertainingly explain scientific concepts.

The peer to peer network project was first offered to RPN and IBC. However, the government stations felt they were not financially or logistically ready to confront the ambitious undertaking. ABS-CBN instantly seized the chance after the project was opened up to the majors.

In a few months, we can expect the airing of short, crisp vignettes on science featuring clips from various Southeast Asian countries.

(If interested in the advocacy for family-friendly television, visit anaktvweb.com or email the foundation at anaktv_seal@yahoo.com.)