The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) report, They Have Been Watching -Children's TV 1952-2002, published last week, said the percentage of imports has increased five-fold since 1972 and that repeats now make up nearly two-thirds of children's programmes - trends reflected in the output of both the BBC and ITV. However, the IPPR acknowledged that the recent BBC digital services, CBBC and CBeebies, the latter specifically for pre-school-age children, had significantly reduced the proportion of imported programming on non-terrestrial television.
The report said the amount of children's and young people's television had risen from just four hours a week in 1952 to more than 620 hours on all broadcasters in 2002 during the week examined in the IPPR's research.
Programme repeats on BBC and ITV have risen from just over a third (35.9 per cent) in 1972 to just under two-thirds (62.2 per cent) in 2002.
Jamie Cowling, a media researcher and co-author of the report, said, 'The amount of programmes aimed at children and young people has risen from about four hours during the BBC monopoly to over 104 hours on terrestial channels today. Yet this expansion has led to a massive increase in the levels of imported programmes and repeats.'
He added that the IPPR was particularly concerned at the low level of news provision for children and young people. 'It is depressing to see that levels of news for children and young people have barely increased since the 1980s,' Mr Cowling said.
The report was welcomed by the Broadcasting Standards Commission, which is currently updating its own analysis of children's programme provision.
Andrea Millwood Hargrave, BSC research director, said previous work by the BSC 'showed that the explosion in airtime provision was not matched by an explosion of diversity and range of programming'.
In a statement the BBC took issue with the IPPR's inclusion of the popular Australian soap, 'Neighbours', when calculating the amount of imported children's programmes. The corporation said, 'Since we would never think of "Neighbours" as a children's show it's difficult to understand the basis of this study or the unusual figures they quote.
'However, the BBC is responsible for more original programmes for children than any other broadcaster, and always has been, and we are the only one in the UK to provide dedicated news coverage for them.'
Former 'Magpie' presenter Susan Stranks, who is campaigning for a national children's radio station, backed the IPPR report's call for greater diversity in news programming for young people and said, 'The news needs to be explained in their terms and in a way appropriate to their age. It has to be presented with care by those who understand the needs of children and how their minds work.'