The producers of local television for children in New Zealand face daunting challenges. No public-service channel exists in New Zealand's deregulated television environment and the country has a small population of 3 million. This paper draws on a year-long production case-study of a publicly funded flagship magazine program for six- to 12-year-olds and considers the strategies used by a range of other productions targeting the same audience. This paper raises questions about the rationale of current funding mechanisms.
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