The role of cartoons on European generalist televisions between 2010 and 2020

Abstract

Cartoons have been and still are a fundamental genre in children’s television programming and are a key product for the media industry due to their easy interpretation by children and their presence in distribution channels. This paper presents an analysis of the supply of children’s and cartoons broadcast over the last decade on 25 European general-interest television channels, both public and private, of Germany, Spain, France, Italy and the United Kingdom. The research findings focus on the genre programming strategies applied in terms of channels, broadcasting time slots and types of production in a multiplatform context driven by the consumption of digital content through streaming and SVOD services. The results show the continued leadership of cartoons in an environment of scarcity of children’s supply on European generalist television channels, reaffirming itself as a morning and weekend product highly shaped by commercial logics. However, distinctive programmatic policies are prominent in the role of public broadcasters in the supply of domestic products, both due to the broadcasting quotas of local cartoons and the consistency of their strategy over the period 2010-2020.