Study: TV tops short-form for Australian kids

Turner Asia Pacific's latest New Generations study reveals that television has a higher monthly usage over short-form video platforms for Aussie children.
July 26, 2018

Despite the rise of short-form video platforms like YouTube and Snapchat, Australian kids ages four to 14 are choosing the television set as their medium of choice for content, according to Turner Asia Pacific’s latest New Generations study.

The study, which measures the viewing behavior of Australian kids including screen time, content preferences and how kids find the latest products, reports that kids, on average, are consuming more than two and a half hours of television and movies across all devices and platforms on a typical day, and spend a further 75 minutes on short-form video platforms.

However, since Turner’s last New Generations survey in 2016, streaming devices, smartwatches and virtual reality devices have all seen significant lifts in households with kid ownership rising 124%, 69% and 60%, respectively.

Interestingly, child access remains higher for tablets and computers compared to smartphones, although almost all households surveyed have a smartphone.

In terms of genres, cartoons are the most popular followed by movies and live-action kids shows.

But don’t count short-form out just yet. Looking deeper into kids’ online habits, short-form video consumption was the most common (73%) online activity for kids across websites and apps. Dan TDM, Ryan’s Toys Reviews, Minecraft, Jake Paul and Hobby Kids TV were listed as kids’ top-five go-to YouTube channels.

Online gaming continues to be extremely important in kids’ lives, with games overtaking school and homework in terms of key online activities. Long-time user-generated hit Minecraft remains the most favorite game for both boys and girls, although new phenom Fortnite ranked as the second-most popular title for boys.

And while social media usage is much lower for under-12s (only 27% used any platform in the last month), Instagram has outpaced Facebook for the first time in the history of Turner’s New Generations studies, with nearly half of the kids using Instagram, of which 87% have their own account.

Rounding out the study, Turner’s AdLab gauged the effectiveness of advertising to kids using metrics including ad likeability, brand recall and purchase intent within TV, short-form video platforms and website environments. Among the key insights, TV ads outperformed YouTube ads when comparing the same creative. The results showed 43% higher spontaneous awareness, 21% higher brand recall, 7% higher ad likeability and a 13% change in purchase intent. However, purchase intent further increased when an ad was shown on both TV and YouTube. When testing websites, premium digital formats including OTP (Over the Page) ads, pre-roll videos and game takeover ad units were more impactful, achieving double the recall of standard digital ads.

About The Author
Jeremy is the Features Editor of Kidscreen specializing in the content production, broadcasting and distribution aspects of the global children's entertainment industry. Contact Jeremy at jdickson@brunico.com.

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