Watch out John Craven, here's Jimmy Neutron

Why isn't commercial TV interested in news programmes for children?

Forget Bill & Ben, Bagpuss or even Mr Benn. We are in a golden age for children's TV in the UK.

Teletubbies, Tweenies, Bob the Builder and Rugrats rule OK. That is, at least according to the Institute of Public Policy Research. In a report, obtained by The Independent on Sunday and due to be published tomorrow, the Labour-friendly think-tank argues that children today have access to a greater volume, range and quality of television than at any point since broadcasting began.

The conclusion hasn't been reached lightly. The group analysed programmes over the last 50 years and found that, while children in 1952 had access to four hours of dedicated programmes a week, today's youngsters have a staggering 620 hours, partly due to the growth of cable and satellite television.

But there's one very large exception to this trend. The IPPR reports that children's news programmes, as a proportion of total programming, have fallen away over the last 20 years. Today, just 0.2 per cent of kids' TV can be classed as news.

In a society where children are exposed to more adult news than ever before – with around-the-clock coverage of events like the 11 September terrorist attacks and the investigation into the murder of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman – it comes as a surprise to find only one dedicated children's news programme: the BBC's Newsround.

"Young people deserve and need more news. This is a glaring omission," says Jamie Cowling, co-author of the IPPR report. "There is a serious worry that news programmes are in danger of being pushed into the margins of kids' TV." The think-tank recommends that "all broadcasters targeting children and young people should include some news programming", to be policed by the new and all-encompassing media regulator Ofcom.

Since she has already helped to shape parts of the draft Communications Bill, there's a chance that the Culture and Media Secretary Tessa Jowell will sit up and take notice. If she does, then the commercial broadcasters, such as ITV, Nickelodeon and Walt Disney, could be in for a big shock.

Publicly, the commercial channels have a whole list of different excuses for why they don't bother with regular news aimed at children. These range from news not fitting in with the aims of their channel, to arguments that children don't need dedicated current affairs programmes, to a reluctance to compete with the well-established Newsround. In reality, the reason is money.

Making news programmes – whether for children or adults – isn't cheap. Compared to drama or animation, news is more expensive per minute to produce. And unlike Tweenies or Bob the Builder, it can't be dubbed into foreign languages and exported all over the world.

Then there's advertising. A toy maker, for example, would prefer to buy an advertising slot next to a fun programme. Marc Bignell, head of television at media buying agency OMD UK, says: "In commercial terms there's no difference between children's news and, say, ITN's evening news. Some advertisers don't want to be associated with news, as it can be quite negative. They'd rather buy slots around drama and films. People prefer fantasy to reality."

Nick News, produced by Nickelodeon, was one of only a few serious attempts by a commercial operator to present regular weekday news for children. Critically, it was a huge success, winning a Bafta and even beating Newsround to a Royal Television Society Award this year.

Nickelodeon, which is owned by the US media colossus Viacom, boasted of Nick News's success in its formal response to the Government when arguing against the awarding of a new digital television licence to the BBC. But this didn't stop it being pulled in the latest schedules.

Nicky Parkinson, head of Nickelodeon UK, says: "It's a shame because from an editorial point of view Nick News won a lot of critical acclaim. But the decision to cull the programme was part of a move to make Nickelodeon a clearly defined brand [and distinguish it] from the Beeb. We decided that news was not core to Nickelodeon and instead we should focus on entertainment."

So, programmes such as the 30-minute special Kids of Afghanistan have been replaced with a diet of shows such as The Wild Thornberrys and Jimmy Neutron.

Ms Parkinson argues that children's broadcasters actually have a role to play in offering children an escape from adult realities. "We didn't cover September 11 at all," she says. "We took the view that with the saturation coverage elsewhere, we were there to provide some respite for children."

Over at Newsround, the team took the opposite view, believing that the blanket coverage of the terrorist attacks, and more recently the Soham murders, left children confused. Roy Milani, head of news at Children's BBC and executive producer of Newsround, says: "It is our job to put the stories in perspective and make them clearly understandable to children. Things like child murder are difficult to tackle, but we don't think we can shy away from these subjects."

Newsround was launched in 1972 and was presented by John Craven for 17 years. Today it is broadcast every weekday evening on BBC1. On the BBC's digital children's channel, CBBC, there are around six Newsround bulletins every weekday along with Newsround Lite, covering entertainment news.

While most rival broadcasters cite the success of Newsround as a reason not to develop a news programme of their own, the BBC bemoans the lack of competition. "It is a concern that there are no rivals to Newsround, as it would give us something to compete against," says Mr Milani.

But he touches on the reason why the likes of Nick News have bitten the dust: "News is low interest to kids. So we have to find a way to connect with them." The problem is that doing this costs money. And as the competition between the commercial broadcasters for the attention of young viewers intensifies, spending on programmes that won't make a lot of money will be a low priority. Unless, of course, the Government takes notice of the IPPR and orders the industry to do so.