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PEOPLE & ARTS Wednesday 19 april 2017

Kids prefer the TV for their viewing, but love other devices

FRAZIER MOORE eyes, that network’s pro-
AP Television Writer graming will be there.
NEW YORK (AP) — Grace Even so, it may be surprising
Ellis has never known a time that children nonetheless
when you needed a TV to watch most television on,
watch TV. well, a television. As in: old-
The North Attleboro, Mas- fashioned linear, while-it’s-
sachusetts, fifth-grader actually-airing telecasts.
watches shows like “Liv A new Nielsen study finds
and Maddie,” ‘’Jessie” and that in the fourth quarter
“The Lodge” on her laptop, of 2016, viewers aged 2-11
iPad and phone. averaged about 17 hours
“Sometimes I watch TV in of live (not time-shifted)
the car,” she says. “I have TV each week. Granted,
ballet every day, so I watch that’s a drop of about 90
on the way.” minutes weekly from the
She has a TV in her bed- year before. But by com-
room that isn’t hooked up parison, kids in fourth quar-
to cable but is perfect for ter 2016 spent about 4½
watching DVDs. hours weekly watching
And the family’s flat-screen video content on other de-
has advantages of its own. vices. In this Jan. 6, 1953, file photo, four children watch a television in Baltimore, Md. Associated Press
“It’s much bigger,” Grace “Linear TV is still the lion’s
explains, “and on the share of where kids’ time of TV shows (chief among cent on mobile phones upended by this technol-
couch, it’s comfier.” is spent,” says Jane Gould, them “Captain Kangaroo” and 25 percent on other ogy, and by major stream-
Ever since freckle-faced senior vice president for and “Mr. Rogers’ Neighbor- streaming devices and ing-video outlets like Hulu,
puppet Howdy Doody ush- consumer insights for Dis- hood”) devoted to uplifting computers. Amazon and Netflix as they
ered in children’s television ney Channel. “But it’s im- their young audience. That includes YouTube, aggressively vie for kids’ (as
nearly 70 years ago, each portant for us to be in all Nearly a half-century later, where its program content well as everybody else’s)
new generation of view- the OTHER places where “Sesame Street” is going has been a presence for attention.
ers has been treated to they are, as well.” strong. some time. Now it’s get- Netflix famously doesn’t dis-
a growing bounty of pro- One reason: Those other “PBS is still at its core,” says ting special focus with the close viewership figures. But
grams on a mushrooming outlets can pave the way Sesame Workshop COO launch of Sesame Studios, according to Andy Yeat-
selection of gadgetry. for a new program’s arrival Steve Youngwood. So is TV which Youngwood de- man, director of global kids
But nothing compares to on linear TV. overall, as demonstrated scribes as “a separate pro- content, “About half of our
the current wave: “The Gould points to “Andi by the series expanding to duction unit specifically for members around the world
generation coming up Mack,” an ambitious com- HBO a year ago. TV cur- that platform. We want to watch kids’ content on a
now is used to having ev- edy-drama that debuted rently accounts for 40 per- harness the power of You- regular basis. So it’s a very
erything at their fingertips,” on Disney Channel on April cent of its viewership. Tube to educate kids just large, engaged audience.
says Stacey Lynn Schul- 7. Weeks before it landed But “Sesame Street” has like we harnessed the pow- “Between new and return-
man, an analyst at the Katz there, the series could be never stopped adapting er of TV 50 years ago.” ing series last year, we add-
Media Group. sampled on digital plat- to an evolving media land- A half-century ago “stream- ed 35 new seasons of kids’
Why not? From birth, theirs forms including the Dis- scape that today finds 18 ing video” was an unimag- originals,” he says. Similar
has been a world of video ney Channel app, Disney. percent of its audience ined wonder. But today’s expansion is projected this
digitally issuing from every com, Disney Channel You- viewing on tablets, 14 per- TV landscape has been year.q
screen. And for them, any Tube, iTunes, Amazon and
of those screens is just an- Google Play.
other screen, whether or Count Grace Ellis among
not you call it “TV.” the legions of kids whose
“When they love a (show), attention was snagged by
they love it in every form this mega-buildup. When
and on every platform,” “Andi Mack” premiered,
says Nickelodeon president Grace was one of the 9 mil-
Cyma Zarghami. lion TV viewers who tuned
This keeps the bosses at in.
each kids’ network scram- When “Sesame Street” pre-
bling to make sure that miered on PBS back in 1969, budgetaruba@setarnet.aw
wherever children turn their it joined a bare handful