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Report Zeros In on Massive Viewership Decline in One TV Segment

Sep 18, 2017  •  Post A Comment

Overall viewing of traditional television has been declining, but one segment that has seen a steeper decline than the rest is kids’ TV. That’s the conclusion of a new study from Bernstein Research, MediaPost reports.

“Bernstein Research says ‘average audiences on kids’ networks are literally half of what they were six years ago’ — about 1.25 million average viewers, down from roughly 2.5 million in 2011, in Nielsen C3 ratings for 2-11 viewers on a total day basis,” MediaPost reports.

“Since the fourth quarter of 2011, only two of 23 quarterly periods have shown growth — and 11 quarters in that six-year span have witnessed double-digit percentage declines,” the report adds.

Todd Juenger, senior media analyst for Bernstein Research, writes: “We don’t know the internal mechanics of the 50% decline — is it a function of the same number of kids watching, but only watching half as much — or have half of kids stopped watching linear TV altogether? We strongly suspect it’s closer to the latter.”

Bernstein Research cites U.S. Census Bureau data indicating 75% of U.S. households don’t have children under 12, prompting Juenger to question how long traditional pay TV providers — cable, satellite and telco — will continue to pay high carriage fees for kids’ networks.

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