Tinky-Winky, Laa-Laa, Dipsy and Po pose for a photo as the Teletubbies celebrate their 25th anniversary with the lighting of the iconic Empire State Building on April 26, 2022 in New York City.
John Lamparski | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images
“Tinky Winky. Dipsy. Laa-Laa. Po!”
These four names, the iconic song intro to “The Teletubbies”, have graced home televisions for almost 30 years. While the library of episodes hasn’t changed in decades, their role in American media has taken on new meaning in the age of streaming.
“Back when television was a little simpler,” said Dean Koocher, a television expert who spent years bringing international children’s shows, including “Teletubbies” and “The Wiggles,” to America.
“Back then there were less gatekeepers, you know, there was PBS, Disney and Nickelodeon was kind of a fresh start,” Koocher told CNBC. “The good thing was, if you could ever get their eyes, you had a much bigger piece of the market, because there weren’t as many options for kids.”
Now, shows aren’t just on traditional TV, and there are a lot more places for parents and kids to find content. From YouTube and TikTok to dozens of streaming options, audiences don’t have to wait to watch their favorite shows. Saturday morning cartoons are now daily cartoons.
And that’s good for streamers, too, especially as Wall Street’s profitability pressures mount.
Children represent a unique demographic for the entertainment industry. Age-specific advertising laws mean companies can’t directly market to them in many cases, but their viewing habits – which often favor repeat content – make them extremely loyal consumers.
At a time when streaming services are eager to attract new subscribers and reduce churn, having a hub for family-friendly content is one way to ensure paying members (eg parents) stick around .
“Kids and family-friendly content is extremely important to both acquisition and retention,” said Peter Csathy, founder and president of the Creative Media consultancy. “Family-friendly franchises are embraced by exhausted parents looking for some downtime as their kids get their screen time.
“Once these kids get hooked on a show, they never leave and they won’t let their parents even think about leaving,” he added.
This is crucial for streaming services, especially as consumers increase costs and weigh which services to keep month to month and which services to stop before the next billing cycle.
In recent years, legacy media companies — such as Disney, Discovery by Warner Bros, Worldwide and Sovereign — tried to compete Netflix in the flux sphere. For a while, Wall Street was satisfied with high subscriber growth and the promise of future profitability. But as ad revenue from linear TV continued to decline significantly, investors quickly reversed course, demanding more immediate earnings growth.
Rinse, repeat
The unique thing about kids’ content is that streamers don’t need a lot of it to engage kids, said Koocher, who now runs Kidstream, a streaming service focused on providing relevant, enriched content to kids ages 2 to 9 years old.
“Young kids don’t mind reruns,” he said, noting that while adults will watch a new season of a show and then move on to another, kids aren’t averse to short-term repeat viewings.
“Kids are notoriously obsessed with franchise movies, shows and characters they love, and will watch them over and over and over again,” echoed Csathy.
This means streamers don’t have to license or create as much content to keep those viewers coming back every month.
Currently, adult-only original entertainment on streaming services outnumbers TV-G or TV-PG rated content by nearly 270%, according to study by the Parents Television and Media Council published in October.
“Seeing that less than 15% of major streamers’ titles are reported to be family-friendly, it seems to me that most major streamers are not fully embracing this reality,” Csathy said. “Franchise content is something that would be smart to prioritize. Very smart.”
Some major streaming services have sections of their platforms focused on children for their own children’s TV productions, but many have also looked outside of Hollywood to license content from international production companies for US audiences.
“A child in the UK or a child in France or a child in Australia or the US have similar wants and needs at that young age,” Koocher said. It is only as they mature that their taste in content begins to differ.
That’s why shows like “Bluey,” an Australian production, “Peppa Pig,” a British production, “Masha and the Bear,” a Russian production, and “Miraculous: Tales of Lady Bug and Cat Noir” have succeeded. , a French production. to perform well in their home countries as well as in America.
Girl watching “Peppa Pig” on iPad tablet lying on sofa at home.
Artur Debat | Moment Mobile | Getty Images
Meanwhile, Koocher found that kids today are still interested in old classics like “Barney,” “Thomas the Tank Engine,” “Madeline” and “Wallace and Gromit,” all of which are available on Kidstream.
Koocher’s platform, which costs $4.99 a month, is also home to newer programming like “Dot” from Randi Zuckerberg, sister of Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg. the animated problem-solving duo of “Bitz & Bob?” and the live animal show ‘Gudrun: The Viking Princess’.
The future of children’s content
Amid parents’ desire for more content and educational options, there’s an opportunity for artificial intelligence to help speed up the animation process.
Artificial intelligence not only has the potential to speed up the animation process, but also democratizes entry into the animation space.
“Genetic AI will allow streamers to create new children’s programming much faster and cheaper, which they certainly will,” Csathy said. “Originality and quality will certainly suffer, but streamers will rely on the hope that kids won’t notice.”
For Kidstream, the focus remains on quality over quantity, Koocher said.
“We’re driven by the parent or carer, whoever is buying the services, just to be happy,” he said.
The platform, which has been around since 2017, has more than 25,000 subscribers, a fraction of the major streaming platforms. But the company can get away with fewer viewers in part because it doesn’t have to spend exponentially on new content.
Koocher, who has three decades of experience in children’s TV, has seen the shift away from linear programming and says audiences don’t want to go back to a schedule to watch their favorite shows, with the exception of Sports.
“I can see more niche channels developing where you can really cater to your customers, whether it’s, in our case, parents of young children or European crime dramas,” he said, referring to established services such as BritBox and horror show Shudder .
“On-demand streaming, I think, is definitely the way to go.”
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.