Who Should Get Out of Kids TV
Eight major programmers, not enough children to go around: I rank Apple, Disney, NBCU, Netflix, Paramount, PBS, WBD and YouTube
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A few years ago, Prime Video very quietly exited the kids TV business. On its face, the decision seemed bonkers. Think about its huge in-roads with parents (all those folks getting diapers delivered every day!). It owns America’s largest e-commerce website, and somehow making its own kids shows (and selling merchandise for said kids shows) didn’t pencil out.
Plus: Amazon’s already spending billions on TV and film for adults, and the company has shown a willingness to lose money for years —and I mean a lot of money — if it sees a market to conquer. (Exhibit A: Amazon’s Alexa. Exhibit B: Just Walk Out technology. There are more.)
Yet despite all that, I kinda get why it decided that it didn’t need to spend like that on kids shows.
For all the talk about the fierceness of the Streaming Wars, the kids Streaming Wars might be tougher. While this might seem unique, it’s always happening. Before the 1990s, kids largely went to broadcast channels to watch TV, but that shifted to cable for the next couple decades. Then, as now, multiple companies entered the market to try to grab kids’ attention.
Kids competition can be brutal; lots of players are fighting for a much smaller piece of the overall viewership pie because there are fewer kids than there are adults in America. Yes, yes, children are our future (thanks Whitney!), but when you limit things to 2-to-5 year-olds or 6-to-11 year-olds, you find that they only make up about 11 to 12 percent of the total U.S. population. The proof is in the quality (production costs) of these shows. Because kids shows mainly appeal only to kids, studios right-size their budgets to those smaller audiences.
By my count, Disney, Netflix, Paramount Global, Warner Bros Discovery, NBCUniversal, PBS, YouTube and Apple TV+ all vie for children’s attention in just the video space.
That’s too many competitors for too small a space.
To find an answer, we need to look at the success these companies have had in the past, the IP and franchises they currently control (versus simply distribute on legacy or current platforms) — and their potential upside in the kids business. For this analysis, I’m mostly thinking about the American market, but obviously some of the leaders in this space have global ambitions.
So the question is . . . who should get out?
Well, that’s what I’ll tell you. In this article, you’ll learn:
Which companies should keep making kids content
Which should not
Which services should keep distributing kids content
Which should not
My definitive ranking of the eight major players right now
The secret weapon each competitor possesses
The biggest threat facing each one