Cartoon pump-out

Nicelodeon, 6 am

MAX and Classic Max, short-lived partners in one of the pioneer channels on Australian subscription TV, have gone, vanishing overnight. In their place, Nickelodeon, which is promoted as the world's leading children's channel.

Phooey to that. Max had a nice and friendly ring and above all it was a channel of Australia's own devising, even if the majority of the programs bundled together in quick time by XYZ were American in origin. At least they were chosen by Australians with Australian viewers in mind.

The name Nickelodeon is so uncomfortably imported that it is already clear that we are to have little say in our pay TV destiny, becoming instead an offshore pump-out platform for whatever is most profitable to Nickelodeon's operators, Viacom.

Now it is to be Hour of Power, Brekkietoons, Toon-a-Rama and the wholesome smile of Clarissa, who Explains It All every day at 6 am.

This in a country that has an enviable record for producing some of the best children's TV programs around. There'll be talk of Australian production and content coming up. We have to ensure that it does, but just now such promises seem so much lip-service as pay TV attempts to skip down somebody else's yellow brick road.