Why everyone's scrambling to produce more children's TV

A new series where we take a look back at some of the top TV industry trends in 2015 and look ahead to what 2016 has in store.

Previously: Why if you work in the TV industry you need to know about eSports and video game broadcasting

Won’t somebody please think of the children?

Kids watch a lot of TV, although they don’t think of it as ‘TV’ anymore. Reports showed that more and more children are watching on iPads and other mobile devices, with YouTube the most popular choice. In fact, YouTube has proven so popular with children it released an app specially for them, unsurprisingly called “YouTube Kids”.

The 20 top [YouTube] children’s channels had more than 5.2bn views in October alone. [ Source]

Four of the top five YouTube channels are for kids (the fifth is Taylor Swift), that’s just an indicator of the popularity we’re talking about here. So it comes as no suprise to see broadcast networks panicking.

What we’ve noticed over the year is a surge in revivals of old children’s TV shows. Nickelodeon in particular are rebooting a lot of their 90s programming in an effort to match the demand for content. Netflix have announced that a third of their original programming next year will be for kids.

In 2016, expect to see more revivals of old IPs, and more child-friendly platform launches. Also expect important discussions about the ethics of digital advertising and tracking in children’s content; YouTube are already on the radar of rights groups. Expect more online mini-series that are essentially thinly veiled toy advertisements. After all, it’s easier to produce 5 minute clips than a whole season of 20 minute episodes.

Recommended Reading

Why YouTube is the new children’s TV... and why it matters

Stuart Dredge, The Guardian

Televisions Are No Longer the Screen of Choice for Kids

Anthony Crupi, AdvertisingAge

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Read the full series on Rerun, our weekly roundup of the news and commentary you can’t afford to miss in the areas of TV, video and digital storytelling.