Insights

It’s August, the kids are off school, and parents are looking for ways to amuse, distract and calm their little people. Inevitably, TV sets have a role to play here. Equally inevitably, that role has changed over time. Ofcom’s Media Nations report highlighted the impact of YouTube on kids’ viewing recently, so it seems like a good time to consider what little people watch.

From 2002 to 2013, kids’ time with TV companies’ content was broadly stable at around 140 minutes per day in any given month. The average for all people 4+ over the same time period was 227 minutes per day. Kids have always watched less than average; they tend to sleep more than adults. If we average the monthly time with TV companies’ content over these twelve years and continue to compare each month up to July 2025, not one single month contains more viewing to TV companies’ content than the 2002-13 monthly average.

Chart 1: Kids’ time with TV companies’ content is now almost 75% lower than the 2002-2013 monthly average
Source: Barb January 2002 – July 2025. Total TV viewing 2002 – Sept 2015 TV-set only. Total Broadcaster Oct 2015 – July 2025 viewing on 4-screens. Monthly average indexed against the average of all months 2002 – 2013.

By the mid-2010s, smartphones, YouTube and SVOD services were becoming mainstream

If we look at the chart above, we can see that by 2015/16, kids’ viewing time was down by around 40% on the 2002-2013 average.

The temptation is to look for ‘the event’ that caused this behaviour. Of course, there isn’t one event, but a number of influential factors by the mid-2010s. YouTube, launched in 2005, was approaching its tenth birthday. Apple’s iPhone launched in 2007, and the Barb Establishment Survey shows that by Q1 2015 half of the population had a smartphone. And the end of 2016, more than eight million homes had access to an SVOD service.

An explosion of choice

YouTube, smartphones and SVOD services represent a common theme – choice. In 2015, we reported viewing to 315 channels. In 2024 that figure stood at 279 – an 11% drop, but these reported channels and services now include the almost limitless channel choices on YouTube and the incredible depth of content available on SVOD services. Not to mention the ability to watch shows on a PC, tablet or smartphone as well as the TV set.

From 2015, we reported viewing on those non-TV devices, but the more significant development for the kids’ audience was the addition of SVOD and video-sharing services to our measurement in late 2021.

Chart 2: Kids’ viewing time is up, but split across screens and services
Source: Barb. Viewing for 4-15 year-olds. 4 screens. January 1st 2022 – July 31st 2025.

Prior to 2022, there were seasonal peaks and troughs in kids’ viewing. Christmas and August, when schools are on holiday, represent dual peaks. Christmas 2010 was a high-water mark, with kids watching an average of 190 minutes of TV a day. Matt Cardle winning The X Factor that year was clearly a big draw.

Although the December and August peaks were more pronounced than they are now, overall viewing levels have actually increased. From 2022 to July 2025, kids have averaged 154 minutes of Total Identified Viewing per day across four screens. Limiting to the TV set, that figure falls to 100 minutes.

What are little people watching?

Overall, kids’ viewing time is up, even if their TV-set viewing time is markedly down. In terms of the content they watch, we are limited to TV-set time for SVOD and now YouTube, so we will compare viewing of TV companies’ content on the same basis.

Children favour repeated viewing and event TV
Source: Barb. Viewing to have taken place between July 21st and August 2nd. All aged 4-15. All audiences 7 days. Where a programme was released before July 21st viewing took place in the calendar week beginning July 21st. Where programmes were broadcast / released during the week they are allowed a 7-day period to accumulate an equivalent audience. All TV-set only.

Taking one week of the most-watched kids’ content, the influence of Netflix is clear to see. BBC and ITV feature five times, but four of those relate to the Lionesses’ successful defence of their European Championship crown. The film KPop Demon Hunters from Netflix was released a full month before the week of analysis, but is otherwise the top show.

This particular film demonstrates some inherent features of kids’ viewing. When kids find something they like, they watch it on repeat. Since its release on June 20th 2025, KPop Demon Hunters has an accumulated audience of 2.8m kids, but a reach of only 1.8m. This means each child has on average, watched the entire film 1.5 times.

We can also see its influence in the content that accumulates the largest audiences on YouTube channels. All five videos, four from JoBlo Animated Videos and one from Still Watching Netflix, feature this film.

Still Watching Netflix had a channel reach of just 34k children during this week, meaning each viewer on the TV set watched the video 3.5 times. So while the platform may be different, the inherent behaviour – the desire to watch the same content again – remains.

Time will tell, but this is unlikely to be a generation lost to TV

The available data seems to suggest this is not a generation lost to TV. They do spend less time with the TV set than their forebearers, but they have a great deal more choice available to them than previous generations.

The data also show that the majority of children’s viewing time is spent with video-sharing services, yet fragmentation within this viewing means that only one in four of the top 20 shows in the week analysed for TV-set viewing are from a YouTube channel. And all of them feature a Netflix film.

Just outside the top 20, EastEnders demonstrates that traditional content from TV companies can appeal to those still in school, while Corrie, Emmerdale and Love Island also sat just outside the top programmes, along with some Sky Sports content.

The presence of Sky Sports just outside the top 20, added to the strong showing for Euro 2025 matches, shows the enduring appeal of sports – even for this young audience. And again illustrates why streamers are keen to add this genre to their portfolio of content.

Ultimately only time will tell, but these Little People may not turn out to be so different to their Big People after all.

Doug Whelpdale is Head of Insight at Barb.

Doug also shares some of these insights in the following video: