DHX Media and Ipsos, Canada’s market intelligence leader and the country’s leading provider of public opinion research, announce the results from a survey of 2,700 parents in the US, Canada and the UK, designed to illuminate how children age 0-12 consume entertainment content and brands.
Dana Landry, CEO of DHX Media, said: “it is important to check in with parents to get their views on how families consume content. DHX Media’s mission is to create children’s content that inspires, entertains and connects the global on-demand generation, and we are encouraged by the results of this survey. The new generation of kids has embraced mobile devices and they love streaming services. Parents are comfortable with kids enjoying content on these new platforms and they are very receptive to the potential for these models to include e-commerce.”
The survey found that kids have embraced mobile on-demand viewing, and that tablets are their preferred screen for consuming content. In the households surveyed, 72% of children’s daily viewing is from streaming services such as YouTube, Netflix and others. When viewing content, 61% of kids use tablets, with 78% of households having at least one tablet and 29% having a tablet for use by a child only. Tablets were found to be the most popular screen used by children, who used the devices to watch 45% of their streamed content.
In addition, the survey found that 40% of kids use smartphones to consume their content, 90% of households with children under 13 have at least one smartphone, and 14% have a smartphone that is used only by a child. Furthermore, nearly one-quarter of children are using smartphones to watch streamed content.
The survey also found that YouTube is the most popular streaming platform among respondents, followed closely by Netflix. Of the households surveyed, YouTube’s Advertising-supported Video on Demand (AVOD) service garnered 15% of all streaming viewing, with Netflix coming in at 13%. When YouTube’s premium Subscription-supported Video on Demand (SVOD) services are included, YouTube garners 24% of all streaming viewing.
The survey also polled parents about their receptivity to a new concept called “One Click Content to Retail”. One Click Content to Retail is a new model that leverages video on an AVOD platform to serve ads to viewers which allow them to click through to purchase featured products. The results showed that 80% of parents liked the idea of being able to click through from a video to buy products for their kids and that 49% of parents said they would use One Click Content to Retail if available. Meanwhile, 81% of parents liked the idea of a child being able to keep a “Wish List” of products via One Click Content to Retail.
In addition, 85% of parents research what to purchase online at least monthly, 78% buy products online at least monthly, and nearly four out of every 10 purchases made specifically for a child are made online. Two thirds of parents are very likely buy products such as toys, games and clothing featuring a child’s favourite character. Parents surveyed were as comfortable with kids viewing streaming content as with traditional TV, and nine in 10 parents say YouTube child-appropriate advertising is acceptable.
These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted between September 2 and September 13, 2024, on behalf of DHX Media. For this survey, a sample of 2,700 parents with a child age 12 or under were interviewed from Ipsos online panels in three countries:the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom (900 respondents per country). The combined data was then weighted to reflect the distribution of the population across the three markets. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll is accurate to within +/ – 2.2 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, had all parents of children aged 12 and under in the three countries been polled. The credibility interval will be wider among subsets of the population. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage error, and measurement error
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