By: Cyrine Amor & Olivia Deane 

The kids content commissioning market is undergoing a profound transformation, driven by shifting audience behavior, evolving business models and changing investment priorities among key industry players. 

At the heart of this overhaul is a fundamental change in how young audiences consume content. Traditional linear TV continues to lose ground as kids increasingly favor on-demand viewing, social media and gaming platforms over scheduled programming. This shift has forced content providers to rethink their strategies, with some significantly scaling back their investment in original children’s programming.

Streaming platforms and pay-TV operators—once dominant forces in commissioning kids content—have dramatically reduced their order volumes in lockstep with prioritizing profitability and focusing instead on bulking up their libraries with more licensed content. Meanwhile, public broadcasters have stepped in as a stabilizing force, maintaining—and in some cases even increasing—their commissioning activity, particularly in North America and the Asia-Pacific region.

A year of recovery
Following a sharp kids TV commissioning contraction in 2023, the landscape showed modest recovery last year, with new orders up by 2% (compared to a 13% drop in 2023). Kids & family was one of just five content genres that grew last year (out of 12 total). And the more expensive scripted genres declined significantly, with crime & thriller down 10% and sci-fi & fantasy 19%.

North America—the region that was most affected by studio and streamer retrenchment—saw order volumes stabilize at around 200 per year, but this is still nearly 35% below peak levels. US kids & family orders have declined by 56% since 2021, with Canada experiencing a much more dramatic 46% year-over-year drop.

Western European orders slid by 6% in 2024 after a 7% drop the previous year. However, public broadcasters helped sustain this market, commissioning 247 titles last—just six fewer than in 2023.

Kids & family commissions across Asia Pacific were up by 24% in 2024, driven by a major push from ABC Australia, which more than doubled its kids & family orders to 24 titles, including new animated series and Bluey spin-offs.

So who’s investing? Public broadcasters
As global streaming platforms focus on profitability, their investment in content has dropped sharply since 2022 across all genres, by about a third in North and South America. But cuts have been more severe for kids & family content—to the tune of 44% in North America and 50% in Western Europe in the same timeframe.

Looking at Netflix alone, orders for this audience plummeted from 66 titles in 2022 to 29 in 2024, with studio-backed pay-TV networks in the US cutting their kids commissioning in half over the same two years.

Amid industry cutbacks, public broadcasters have emerged as a stabilizing force. Despite budget pressures, their overall commissioning slightly increased in 2024, driven by growth in North America and Asia Pacific, while Europe’s public broadcasters maintained steady output. And children’s programming remains key to their public remit, enabling them to partially fund production and support new IPs. 

Public broadcasters accounted for 54% of all kids TV commissions in 2024—up from around 49% in the previous five years. Leading the pack was the BBC, which commissioned 56 kids & family titles, followed by France Télévisions at 38. 

Budget constraints have also fuelled a rise in co-productions, which reached their highest level in five years, and public broadcasters played a major role by partnering on 66% of all co-commissions.

Animation takes the lead
Hard times have also had an impact on the type of children’s programming being commissioned. In 2024, the number of live-action kids & family titles that moved forward reached a four-year low, with animated content—which is cheaper to produce and easier to dub into other languages—representing half of the total commissions for this audience. 

Interestingly, the proportion of scripted live-action titles increased last year compared to 2023, after remaining more or less consistent for the previous three years. Asia Pacific drove this lift, commissioning 6% more of this kind of kids & family content than in 2023. 

Playing it safe?
In 2023, children & family commissioners were increasingly risk-averse, announcing an almost equal split of new (51%) and returning (49%) TV commissions and a 5% overall reduction in new titles compared to 2021. And this trend showed very little change in 2024, when returning titles represented 48% of all new children’s television announcements. 

While the volume of renewals declined by 2% between 2023 and 2024, new content showed signs of conservative growth, increasing by 5% in the same period. Similarly, commissioners exhibited a greater appetite for kids content based on existing multimedia franchises. These types of orders increased by 4% between 2023 and 2024, and notable projects included a currently untitled Bluey movie from BBC Studios and Walt Disney Studios.

The bottom line: With limited budgets and audience retention challenges, kids & family commissioners are more likely to invest in already popular titles and known IP than gamble on completely new content in 2025. 

Social media & gaming influence
Ampere’s consumer service shows that households with children are watching more free social media videos than ever before, with the daily time spent on this activity increasing by 6% between Q3 2022 and Q3 2024—making it the second-fastest type of viewing globally.

While some buyers have moved into YouTube-style content (including the BBC’s gaming series Game on Grandparents, which features prominent YouTubers), the social video market is highly saturated, making it difficult for more traditional content to stand out.

Commissioners also have yet to make the most of powerful gaming IPs. While YouTube is rife with titles related to popular games like Minecraft or Roblox, game-based content represented just 1% of all kids & family titles announced in 2024.

Looking ahead
The kids TV commissioning landscape is stabilizing after a sharp decline in 2023, but structural shifts persist. Streaming platforms and pay-TV operators continue to cut back, while public broadcasters play a crucial role in sustaining the sector, driving co-productions and supporting new IPs.

Trends that reflect industry-wide budget constraints include the dominance of animation, a reliance on established franchises and a cautious approach to new content. However, modest growth in scripted titles and new commissions signals a slow return to innovation.

As children’s viewing habits shift towards social media and gaming, broadcasters and streaming platforms must adapt, exploring new formats and leveraging powerful entertainment brands to stay relevant in an increasingly fragmented market.

Cyrine Amor is a research manager at Ampere Analysis, where she leads the team’s editorial output and provides in-depth analysis of global TV commissioning trends, with a focus on the European market and children’s programming. 

Olivia Deane is a research manager for Ampere’s Commissioning service, which tracks the commissioning and production of new original content globally. She was recently instrumental in expanding the service to include intellectual property information for both unscripted and scripted content. 

Featured image: Piggy Builders from Xilam Animation was one of 56 kids & family shows the BBC commissioned in 2024.

This story originally appeared in Kidscreen’s Q2 2025 magazine issue.