YOUNG AUDIENCES INITIATIVE
January - February 2021

Dear colleague, 

It's been almost a year now since the world changed, and although challenging for everyone, the EBU Young Audiences community has always been keen on supporting each other and coming up with great new ideas and projects. 2021 will be no different and we are more than ready to face new challenges.
 
You will find below a summary of the activities our community has been up to in the first two months of the year, as well as a few upcoming opportunities to collaborate with the network.

PRIORITIES

"Priorities" is the main theme of this edition of our newsletter. Here's why.

In January and February, we took the time to talk to many of you and assess what your key priorities were for the year - they of course then become our own priorities to serve you better.

The second and equally important reason is that one of the most traditional conversations around Young Audiences & PSM has recently been brought back up. If connecting with young audiences - our audience of the future - is so important for PSM, then why is it than such small portions of our budget and resources are used to connect with this target age group? One of the conclusions of the EBU Youth - What Works report was that it's not true that connecting with young people is a hard task for PSM. But our report shows that can set aside all assumptions about the limited relevance of PSM for this age group. Ambition - when accompanied by action - can go a long way. It's all a question of setting priorities right.

In the coming months, we will organize a series of discussions to motivate decision makers in PSM to invest more - and differently - in connecting with young people. More info below.

COVID-19 impact in our stories: ZDF Fiction case
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected children in many ways, and thus the stories that children can relate to. ZDF's short film @Kalinka08 tackles the issue of domestic abuse in the family of a young girl during the pandemic. This was a great way to offer help and encourage children to speak up if they face the same situation.

Facing COVID-19 production restrictions and challenges: VRT goes the extra mile
For this year's Golden K's Gala, VRT tapped into XR (extended reality) in order to offer their highly engaging and entertaining live Golden Awards show. The XR studio brought the possibility of creating a number of imaginary worlds. It was a big success among kids and a great example of innovative production. Congrats to the team!

BBC Three will return to TV screens
Six years after it was moved online, BBC Three will return as a TV channel in January 2022, and will focus on younger audiences aged 16 to 34 years old. 

International Women's Day & young audiences
8 March is International Women's Day. For this occasion, we wanted to highlight some of the cases that our Members have launched to connect with young adults around gender matters. One example is NPO's fiction show The Slut From 6VWO, which teaches about dealing with slut-shaming, and women's empowerment. Another example is France TV's Océan, a documentary about the transition of a trans man. Funk's Girls Night Out is a web series that focuses on topics that are relevant for young girls, while VPRO's Sex Sisters discusses subjects that are usually considered as taboo. Finally, this month, SRF Virus has launched Me, Myself and Why, an Instagram page that focuses on women and their stories. 

Here at the EBU, we're organizing a number of events to mark International Women's Day. They are not particularly related to young audiences, but if you are interested you can find all the info here.

Fiction for Youth - What Works?
Have you already checked out NRK's 17, TG4's To Connect,  France TV's Stalk or SRF's Nr. 47? If they do well among young people, then similar programmes or formats could work as well. Based on the findings of the EBU Youth report, we will continue a discussion about what works to connect with young people through fiction products and to assess opportunities for PSM to collaborate in this field. If you are interested in joining, please let us know.

EBU Youth - What Works?
Remember you can find 60 examples of stories that work to connect with young adults in the EBU Youth Report. 

First EBU Kids strategy meeting of 2021
Heads of Kids from 27 EBU Members met on 5 February for the first EBU Kids strategy meeting of the year. Key topics on the agenda included the move to digital for PSM Kids brands and how COVID-19 has impacted PSM Kids content. Presentations and video recordings of the meeting are now available here.

EBU Kids x FAANGS quarterly meeting
This year's first quarterly meeting on platform-related matters for the EBU Kids community took place on 22 February. A summary of the discussion is now available for EBU Members here.

Kick-off of the 2021 EBU Kids Friendship campaign
After a successful campaign in 2020, we are excited to announce that we'll organize the campaign again this year. If you're interested in joining us, get in touch.

Erfurt and Pre-School Item Exchange 2021
The kick-off meetings of this year's Erfurt and Pre-School Exchange will take place this month. Colleagues interested in joining can get in touch with us.

EBU Youth virtual discussion - why should PSM invest more and differently to connect with young adults?
It's often said that connecting with young audiences is a priority for PSM. And yet very small parts of our budget are used for this purpose. If you want to convince your colleagues to invest more, or differently, to connect with young adults, come along with commissioners, programme directors or strategists in your organization to our event on 13 April!

EBU Youth - What Works? report now in French
We're happy to announce that our report EBU Youth: What Works? has been translated into French.

EBU Youth Radio Heads meeting
Heads of Youth Radio stations with our Members met on 4 March. More info here.

EBU Academy Master Class - How to create impactful news formats to engage Generation Z audiences
In this e-Master Class, you will learn what makes a news format successful and how this affects the relevance and engagement of your content. More information here.

• Co-concepting with Young People & PSM - 18 March
  An online discussion organized by the new Youth, Media and Culture in collaboration with the International Association of Public Media Researchers.
• M:brane Forum - Smart content for savvy young audiences 16-18 March
  A special offer to EBU Members gives you the possibility of late registration, by 9 March, with a 25% reduction by using the code EBUMB21. 
• How to reach Swiss digital natives with news - A qualitative study by the University of Lausanne, Zurich University of Applied Sciences and the University of Lugano.
• Twitch ended 2020 with its biggest numbers ever
• Snapchat shares new insights into Gen Z consumption and engagement trends
• Big feelings and nowhere to go: how Gen Z reinvented the power ballad
• How kids television became the most heated front in the streaming wars
• Star’s launch means lots of new content for Disney Plus — but not in the US
• Preventing child exploitation on our apps
• YouTube to launch parental control features for families with tweens and teens

Best wishes,

The EBU Young Audiences Team