At this month’s Children’s Media Conference in Sheffield, the “CMC Debate” covered the role of YouTube in young people’s lives, and how its popularity may displace culturally relevant media without supporting children’s urgent need for public-service content.

Panelists addressed facets of the platform that disrupt UK media-makers and distributors, but that are also foundational to its attraction to kids and teens. YouTube is free to viewers, challenging the traditional economic model of content creation. Viewers can find content from anywhere in the world, potentially diluting the dominance of the UK’s supply chain. YouTube is uncurated (though moderated), meaning that there are wide variances in quality and accuracy, but its near-infinite scope can be appealing compared to fixed libraries.

EMarketer suggests that competitors like Disney+ haven’t responded to YouTube’s short-form content quickly enough, leaving behind media-snackers who may have less interest now in longer formats.

I’d propose, though, that there’s another critical factor that differentiates YouTube, TikTok and other “user-generated content” platforms (UGC), and it’s one that studios, broadcasters and streamers could address: immediacy. 

The instant development cycle
In January 2015, I produced and moderated a panel event at YouTube Studios in LA called “Creating Content for Children’s Media: What’s Next.” Executives and creators from Nickelodeon, YouTube, Maker Studios, StyleHaul and more discussed how young people’s multi-platform media consumption habits were changing, and how production was (or wasn’t) adapting to that evolution.

The event’s most revealing moment was when I asked each panelist about their development process. The linear folks described a traditional multi-year cycle—two steps forward, one step back to get to a finished series that would be  locked in place regardless of how the audience responded. The YouTubers presented a dynamic practice of rapid (if not daily) production toward a predictable and frequent release schedule. The almost-instant analytics from the platform provided data for deciding what worked and what didn’t.

Just nine years later, the landscape is way more complex, with a strong shift toward mobile media; the emergence of TikTok, Reels, Shorts and other snackable videos; and the rise of UGC gaming platforms that add options for speedy development and iterative updates.

Even in 2015, user-generated content creators knew they had a unique advantage to be “in the moment.” How could traditional development and distribution models compete, responding to shifting trends, emerging themes of importance to the audience, or news developments. 

Bring on the rapid response teams
During the pandemic, at least one studio found a middle ground. Sinking Ship Entertainment conceived and developed a multi-part series called Lockdown, sold it to YouTube Originals, and produced it (remotely, using mobile phones and webcams) in a matter of weeks.

How many production companies or commissioners have a “rapid response team” watching for the opportunity—or necessity—to create programs, shorts or even game/interactive activations that feel timely and responsive?

Do studios have a “playbook” of formats or genres that can be put into production to release in days or weeks? Sesame Street has a great history of responding to immediate needs in difficult times—most recently, building an emotional resilience collection after a social media post by Elmo exposed how fragile families were feeling.

Acknowledging that some public-service organizations are restricted from using YouTube, do those that aren’t have a strategy for the platform that focuses on immediacy?

Generations Z and Alpha value being in dialogue with their favorite brands and content. They were upset when YouTube stopped allowing comments on children’s videos because it cut off their means for both giving feedback and validating their fandom. Rapid-response content demonstrates that “someone is home,” tracking and acknowledging audience interests, and paying attention to moments of importance.

A big tent
None of this is to say that long-view, big-budget series aren’t an integral and valuable part of the children’s media landscape. We’d be culturally poorer without series that demand time, money and careful crafting. Young people absolutely love a blockbuster series like Stranger Things and highly produced animated series like Bluey (the UK’s number-one show among two- to eight-year-olds in Dubit Trends’ April 2024 survey, up 8% year over year) and SpongeBob SquarePants. Many of these are made to be evergreen, delighting viewers for years if not generations, whereas a lot of UGC content is fine with being ephemeral.

Across our entire lives, however, we balance the immediate and the long view—in what we read and watch, how we work and play, and what we buy and eat. Contrary to the aphorism, it’s not a matter of “the urgent getting in the way of the important,” but of finding ways for traditional media—especially public-service media—to offer what’s urgent and important in audiences’ daily lives in order to compete in today’s omni-platform media landscape.

David Kleeman is SVP of Global Trends for Dubit, a UK-based metaverse studio and research/strategy consultancy.