October 22, 2018

In December 2016, the Government consulted on establishing a pilot for a new “Contestable Fund” to help stimulate the provision and plurality of public service content in targeted areas in light of the decline in the provision of certain key public service genres, such as children’s TV.

Following its response to the consultation, which was published in December 2017, the Government has now published details of the scope of a £60 million Contestable Fund pilot scheme, which will be open for applications from April 2019.

The final scope of the Contestable Fund includes new elements such as:

• up to £57 million will be assigned to the Young Audiences Content Fund, administered by the British Film Institute, to support public service content for audiences up to 18;
• up to £3 million will be assigned to the Audio Content Fund to support all public service audio content on radio;
• support for UK indigenous language content, with a target aspiration of 5% of the awards distributed; and
• the introduction of development funding as part of the Young Audiences Content Fund, with 5% of the fund being used to support small and emerging producers.

Further guidance, including how to apply to both of the funds, will be published by the fund administrators in the new year. The pilot will then be open for applications in April 2019. To read the Government’s press release, click here. To access the Government’s policy paper on the final scope of the fund, click here.