With families across the globe staying home to help prevent the spread of coronavirus, kids have settled online, consuming tremendous amounts of content for both education and play. According to a study by Parents Together, 49per cent of American kids are spending at least 8 hours a day in front of screens. This figure has skyrocketed from 8per cent before the pandemic.
Publishers and producers of kids’ content responded quickly to this increased viewership to ensure they’re monetising content safely and appropriately for young audiences. So far, top streaming services are just exploding from the growing number of channels for kids. For instance, Amazon Fire TV accounts for about 500 channels for kids, while Roku offers a totally endless catalogue of kids’ apps. Most of them serve educational, entertaining, animated, and gaming content across CTV/OTT screens.
What’s in CTV for You?
Connected TV is a new ecosystem that helps content creators to grow their audience, reaching even those who never watch TV. CTV platforms, namely Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, and Android TV, are where people watch their favorite shows these days. 86per cent of millennials and Gen Zers consume content here. And since these demographic groups are continuing to cut cords, CTV viewership is set to grow by 204.1 million in 2022.
It’s only natural that this number is driving advertisers and their ad budgets to the platform. The total ad spend on CTV is predicted to amount to $10.8 billion by 2021. Moreover, here viewers aren’t skipping through video ads, which cuts vloggers’ revenue down.
Tips to Join CTV
So how do kids’ content producers enter CTV environments? The To-Do list is much shorter than the one you fill in reality — from creating an app independently or hiring outside app developers to the step-by-step pace of approval on each streaming platform. On the other hand, there is the opportunity to let specific companies handle developing, approval, and marketing aspects. For instance, by leveraging the VlogBox app development platform, publishers receive:
- A basic channel/app developed for free
- All the steps of the approval process on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Android TV are taken care of
- Intelligent video analytics that optimize ads in real-time for higher revenue.
- More advantageous revenue share than on YouTube.
All kids’ content creators receive a standard app for each of the platforms free of charge. However, for an additional price, they can customize the application to their preferences and requirements.
Expanding Audiences and Increasing Revenue
Brand building is not about conquering all possible channels and placements – in fact, it’s about setting major goals and moving in a chosen direction. Therefore, coming to the video format, specifically diving into the CTV/OTT environment, implies the following objectives:
- Reaching cord-cutters and cord-nevers
- Experimenting and expanding an audience
- Increasing revenue through monetisation on other possible platforms
There are some more essentials to keep in mind when it comes to serving content to kid audiences. Kids are decision influencers in their households, while their parents are decision-makers in choosing what content is seen. So, in a nutshell, content producers have to think of reaching not solely kids, but also their co-viewing audience, like parents, through family video content.
For instance, Riki Group, a Russian animation market leader, partnered with VlogBox and successfully implemented this strategy, creating animations for kids of all ages, as well as family audiences (Fixies, Kikoriki). Other media companies, such as Sprout Studios (NuNu TV) and Sabbatical Entertainment (Kids Planet) also contribute a lot to creating premium kids’ content. With a focus on educational and entertainment programs, they promote ethical values and provide captivating visuals and exciting storytelling, thus inviting entire families to CTV screens.
Another essential step to expand CTV audiences and increase revenue is simply to promote the channel within the streaming services. Roku self-serve platform or Allroll marketing platform are strike examples of channel promotion services.
Takeaways
The world of media has changed. Today kids’ content creators have the freedom to diversify video monetization by successfully distributing their content on connected TV and thus growing both watchtime and revenue. By choosing the right partner, content owners can leverage this opportunity without breaking the bank, as all the work required to launch a channel on CTV is taken care of. All a creator has to do is to keep doing what they do best — creating.