• by Wayne Friedman , February 13, 2006

As the American International Toy Fair market kicks into high gear this week in New York City, the good news for marketers is that kids are watching more TV than ever. The bad news is that they may not be watching traditional kids-produced television.

In a recent Magna Global report, non-kids' program viewing by kids ages 2-11 was an average of 8.53 hours a week in 2005--up from 8.13 in 2003. At the same time, kids' programming viewing by kids 2-11 was down to 8.65 hours from 9.14 hours a week. Magna said most of the rise in non-kids' program viewing came from cable network programming.

"There are more digital cable networks, more programming, and more opportunity for kids," said Lisa Quan, vice president and manager of broadcast research at Interpublic Group of Cos.' Magna Global USA, in explaining the overall shift of kids into non-traditional kids programs.

Television program analysts have said for some time that they believe kids today grow out of traditional kids' television more rapidly than in previous generations.

"Kids' viewing is so fragmented now," says Debbie Solomon, senior partner, group research director of Group M's Mindshare USA. "There are so many options--many could be watching more shows such as "Malcolm in the Middle."

Overall, kids 2-11 PUT (People Using Television) levels are up slightly by 1 percent to an average combined rating of 13.5, according to Mindshare USA. Solomon adds that over the last decade, kids' TV usage has climbed slowly to 21.2 hours a week for kids 6-11, and 25.4 hours for kids 2-5.

"As much as people say the Internet and video games will take over [for kids], it's been pretty steady growth for TV viewing," she says. One bit of evidence comes from Fox, which has seen a 23 percent bump in its 2-11 ratings to an average 1.3 rating--so far this season, the highest rise for any network. Although part of this hike comes from Saturday morning programming acquired and scheduled for Fox by 4Kids Entertainment, analysts also guess that rise could be from young-skewing sitcoms such as "Malcolm in the Middle," as well as the network's other prime-time animated shows.

Overall, the kids' market is still dominated by one player: Nickelodeon. With shows like "SpongeBob SquarePants," Nick continues to dominate with a season-to-date average 3.0 rating/19 share among kids 2-11 viewers from August 29 through December 25, 2005.

Although Nick slipped 6 percent from a year ago with these numbers, the network is still almost double the average ratings of its nearest competitor, Cartoon Network--which pulled in a 1.6 rating/10 share.

Both Nick and Cartoon continue to grab the bulk of kids' advertising dollars. For the first 11 months of 2005, Nickelodeon pulled in $743.7 million for the year, according TNS Media Intelligence; Cartoon Network took in $272.3 million.

Hot on the heels of Cartoon Network is Disney Channel, the commercial-free kids' network. So far this season, it has grabbed an average 1.5 kids 2-11 rating. Disney Channel's viewers have grown by 11 percent in the 2005-2006 season so far over the year before.

A lot of this comes from shows like "That's So Raven" and "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody." One of the key growth areas for the network comes from an unusual source: boy viewers.

"In the past three years, Disney has improved with shows like 'Zack and Cody'," said Magna Global's Quan. "WB used to be the big player with boys 6-11."

Quan says the big change this year has been Disney Channel's growth over Cartoon Network. According to Magna Global analysis, Disney overtook Cartoon in the weekly percentage of total kids' 2-11 ratings points--primarily because Cartoon's removed its "Adult Swim" late-night block as a separate rated programming time period. Disney climbed to 26.5 percent from 23.0 percent in percentage of total weekly ratings; Cartoon slipped to 23.4 percent from 26.9 percent. Nickelodeon also slipped a bit to 35.6 from 36.5--but still maintains its number one status in the ratings category.