Why Streamers Should Consider Offering More Kids Content
Movieguide® Contributor
As competition hikes for streaming platforms, everyone is plotting how to maintain subscribers, and providing more kids programming might be a way to do that.
“Numbers from Ampere show that as of the first quarter of 2024, 36% of all streaming viewers without children could be identified as at risk of churning,” The Streamable reported Sept. 17. “Among families with kids, however, the number drops to 28%, a sign that children have a definite say in whether or not a family decides to keep a streaming subscription — or that families with kids are too distracted by other things to worry about dropping streaming services on a weekly basis.”
You might think these numbers would lead streamers to provide more kids content, but The Streamable says the opposite is occurring.
“Commissions for on-demand original shows in the children and family category dropped by 18% between 2022 and 2023,” the website said.
“One big reason for this is the dominance of YouTube among kids,” The Streamable said. “A report from late 2023 found that YouTube made up a higher proportion of streaming time among viewers aged 2-11 than any subscription streaming service, including Netflix. In July, YouTube made up for more than 10% of all TV watched in the United States total, the first time any streaming video platform had surpassed that threshold.”
IBC reported that “those who can fund their own new children’s titles will have an advantage in a busy acquisition market,” but that can be very expensive.
The Streamable says platforms don’t have to make original content to boost their numbers; they can renew old shows or buy titles.
“In the same period of time between 2022 and 2023 that saw commissions for on-demand originals fall by 18%, non-original or acquired titles available to stream grew by 4%,” The Streamable said.
“Renewals are continuing to account for a greater share of commissions in the children and family category. Ampere found that renewals accounted for 50% of commissions of titles for kids in the first half of 2024, the first time that first-run programming didn’t account for more than half of commissions in the past five years.”
Peter Csathy, founder and chair of advisory firm Creative Media, thinks streamers should buy into children’s franchises because children don’t mind repetition and like to see characters they’re familiar with.
“Seeing that less than 15% of titles on the major streamers is reportedly family-friendly, seems to me that most major streamers don’t fully embrace this reality,” said Csathy. “Franchise content is something that would be smart to prioritize. Very smart.”
Movieguide® advises caution when it comes to streaming content for kids. We previously reported:
Children’s content, like all other media, has migrated to streaming services, but the ability for kids to choose what they watch when they want to might do more harm than good.
“Kids will always go for the biggest, fastest dopamine hit…We live in a world of instant gratification culture and actually delayed gratification is much better for happiness and mental wellbeing in the long term,” Konnie Huq, the longest-serving female presenter on CBBC’s BLUE PETER, told Sky News…
Shows like COCOMELON—a popular childrens’ YouTube channel with over 168 billion views—rely on stimulating, and sometimes overstimulating, kids’ brains to trigger as much dopamine as possible.
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