How Children Consume Digital Entertainment

I was able to obtain some compelling data on children’s entertainment consumption patterns.   Precise.TV., a leading kid safe contextual advertising platform, commissioned a report which surveyed 2,000 US families with boys and girls between the ages of 2 and 12 to determine how kids and families consume digital and analog media.  Their goal was to learn how best to reach and engage children through entertainment.

The challenge for toy companies in the era of multiple screens is how to plan their advertising budgets. Precise.TV’s research has provided a treasure chest of valuable information, which I will be exploring in a series of articles.

Let’s get started.

Those born in the 21st century do not remember when toy companies spent close to 100% of their advertising budgets on television. In many cases, the number of dollars spent on television determined whether a retailer listed a product.  Those indeed were simpler times.

How does a toy company determine where to spend its advertising dollars in today’s far more fragmented entertainment scene?  The below chart will be a help in making those decisions. It breaks out eleven ways children consume entertainment.

Two things pop out immediately, fully 85% of children watch YouTube. At the same time, only 41% watch broadcast television.

I found it surprising that only 60% of children report playing video games. I say “only” because, based upon observation, it seems like just about every child is playing a game on a mobile device. 

71% of respondents report that they watch Video on Demand. When you consider that only 17% said going to the movies (thanks to you, Covid), you can see that Video on Demand, if not the entire future of the movies, will be a big part of it.

There is still old-fashioned analog consumption. 16% of children reported reading magazines while a surprising, at least to me, 37% of kids listen to the radio. Combine that with the strong interest in digital-only sound devices like Tonibox and Yoto Player, and you can see a growing entertainment pattern.

In my next article, I’ll break out more information on how children consume Video on Demand, Broadcast TV, Social Networks, and Online.How Children Consume Digital Entertainment