Canada has a long tradition of producing popular and award-winning screen-based programming for children’s and youth audiences; a tradition that stretches back more than six decades to the National Film Board’s first forays in educational documentary and animation production in the 1940s. Canadians are well known for bringing entertaining live-action and animation programming to viewers around the world – programming that reflects Canadian values and diversity, enriches the lives of Canadian children and youth, and offers international audiences a view into Canadian culture. There are sound social, cultural and economic cases to be made for the increased support for the creation of children’s and youth programming in Canada; and yet, the genre is no longer a priority for policy makers. The purpose of this study is to report on the social, cultural and economic strengths of children’s and youth programming, and at the same time, bring attention to the many challenges that the genre faces today
