The writer Philip Pullman and broadcaster Michael Palin have called on the Government to save children’s television after a report disclosed the severe problems facing the industry.

The report by Ofcom found that broadcasters were feeding younger viewers a diet of cartoons and US imports and spending less cash on new, British-made programmes.

Pullman, author of the trilogy His Dark Materials, called on the Government to intervene. He said that it was the result of “a dogmatic insistence that the market always knows best, and must have the final decision about the way we live; and as with other such things, the problem can only be cured by telling the market who’s boss”.

Palin said: “Producing sympathetic, creative, entertaining and informative programmes for them [children] is a challenge which our broadcasters have risen to with great success. I urge them not to throw away this important opportunity to engage with children. To lose children's TV would be to lose some of our most inventive programmes.”

Palin and Pullman backed a new campaign, Save Kids’ TV, which is lobbying the regulator and Parliament to intervene, saying that otherwise children’s TV will be “limited to repeats and imported, cheap animation”.

Investment in original British programmes dropped from £127 million in 1998 to £109 million last year, according to the report, the most substantial analysis of children’s TV.

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