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There was a BBC Money Program 3 part special "Media Revolution" (I think it may already have been mentioned in this thread). It had a program on TV as well as books, and in the TV program there was an interesting observation that, at least of childern's programs, it used to be the case that the broadcaster would provide 75%+ of the production costs. Now you are lucky if they provide 25%. What was interesting for this discussion is that, if I remember correctly (okay, okay, IIRC), the majority of this is now coming from the merchandising companies that intend to sell the toys, tie-ins, etc. on the back of a popular the TV program...
I'm not sure I like this model; I'd rather have the author write a book/story they wanted to rather than them having to think about how to get merchandising into the story, and perhaps end up with somewhat stilted stories.
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