Kids' TV increasingly gender-neutral as commissioning reflects social zeitgeist

Kids' TV content is getting increasingly gender neutral as content commissioning reflects shifts in social and political focus. In upcoming kids content, gender-neutral content is the largest category for all age groups, particularly pre-school and young kids. Although gender-targeted content persists in the tween/teen category, gender neutral is now the bigger segment even for this age. Narratives and story lines are also evolving with a shift away from single protagonists towards content where a family, team or group is the main character focus. A full analysis of recently commissioned kids' TV content as well as of SVoD commissioning for children suggests a number of emerging trends in kids TV. Opportunity exists in addressing under-served areas and in combining emerging trends in character, content type and narrative. Among the key findings:

• Content wise, there appears to be notable opportunity for licensing and production of teen and tween content for SVoD as well as for more pre-school
  
• Live action and male-focused content also looks underserved.
• In terms of content development for all platforms (including linear), stories that centre on a family, team or group as the lead ‘character’ rather than an individual are an increasingly important area to explore.
• Themes of friendship and magic are growing areas for exploitation.
• For young boys, vehicle-based anthropomorphic characters should be a growth area.
• Overall there is a move to more gender-neutral content outside of pre-school across content for young kids,teens and tweens. But we expect a focus on strong female leads to also be a non-going trend.
• Themes of adversity or challenge or adventure/mystery that is aimed at girls or has a female lead looks like a clear opportunity.

The full report, Where next for kids’ TV: Predicting the future of children’s content, published by MIPTV & MIPCOM is available for free download on the MIPTrends Website.