• by Mike Bloxham , Op-Ed Contributor, August 30, 2012

For many brands, understanding TV co-viewing behaviors can help guide media planning and buying. This USA TouchPoints analysis shows which genres have the greatest share of Adult-Child co-viewing in the average day.

• While it may be tempting to picture Adult-Child co-viewing as something that takes place with the adult playing the role of ideal parent and patiently watching children’s programming, this is not wholly or even mostly the case, when we define children as those 17 and under.

• Children’s programming may account for 30% of all Adult-Child co-viewing on an average day, but it is outstripped by both News (36%) and Drama (35%).

• News may be a factor of where it falls in the day -- around meal times, including breakfast when the family is starting the day and children of all ages are often being shepherded through breakfast and out of the house with the TV on local or national news programming.

• Otherwise, we see different genres represented in a manner that suggests much co-viewing is taking place as a family activity with programming choices being based on shared interest, be it reality, movies, sports or sitcoms.

An analysis of households with only younger children present may show distinct differences -- perhaps most obviously in the share of children’s programming and drama.