HBO, Netflix, and Amazon Targeting Kids

An anonymous reader writes: The latest high-profile show to join one of the major streaming services probably isn't one you watch: Sesame Street. However, it's a clear signal for a growing trend: these services desperately want to corner the market on kid's shows. Netflix has gotten tons of praise for its original series, and it's been quietly putting that production power behind new shows aimed at children. They've also made deals with Disney and Dreamworks to get movies onto the service as quickly as possible. Amazon has been debuting series after series as well, with six pilots for new children's shows landing last month alone. "The battle for kids, at bottom, is about keeping their parents around even when a favorite show about a murderous politician is on hiatus. Streaming services are far easier to cancel and resubscribe than cable-TV ... so the goal is to make that decision harder." Now that HBO is starting to commit to streaming, it's faced with the same problems. By deriving their funding through subscriptions, these companies can avoid the flak YouTube and Hulu are getting for targeting kids with advertisements.

Comments

Re:Sesame St. episode explaining "corner the marke

[laurencetux]

Maybe IBM can build a Watson module called "Mr Rogers" to do the explaining

Targeting? WTF?

[Okian Warrior]

I read "Targeting" as an allusion to weapons - taking aim with a firearm or dropped munitions.

The framing implies "very bad", so it makes sense to feel outraged when cigarette makers "target" teenagers, or liquor sellers "target" young adults, or spammers "target" old people.

Let's put this in perspective: HBO, Amazon, and Netflix aren't "targeting" kids, they are taking over a product that kids like. There's no evidence that Sesame Street is bad for kids in any realistic way.

On the flip side, if Game of Thrones is any indication, Sesame Street will be even higher quality than it is now, except that every episode a character will die :-)

Re:Targeting? WTF?

[rtb61]

Targeting is the most appropriate word because they are not interested in helping children learn and develop, they are only interested in baiting them with content to target them with manipulative and psychological destructive ads https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/..., "In the United Kingdom, Greece, Denmark, and Belgium advertising to children is restricted. In Quebec, Sweden and Norway advertising to children under the age of 12 is illegal." Will this ever happen in the United State of America, not bloody likely after all freedom of speech and greed takes precedence (perhaps USA should change to B$A to match the love of advertising and public relations).

Re:Fta

[Cobalt Jacket]

PBS stations have always paid fees, representing substantial portions their budgets, for which they have to go panhandle to the public and companies. Now HBO picks up the tab. CTW makes 2x as many episodes, and PBS stations get that same content nine months later *for free.* I doubt children (mine included) will mind the 9 months of reruns during the initial delay.

Hulu does not target children with advertisements

[rminsk]

From the Hulu FAQ: At this time, Hulu Kids is provided for Hulu subscribers without advertisements. While working with our content partners, we collaboratively decided that providing this hub ad-free is the best thing to do for this content.

Re:Kids are for goats.

[Foobar of Borg]

You are all goats. Goats say gleep. GLEEEEEP! GLEEEEEP! Gleep goats GLEEEEP! Gleep say the goats. YOU GOATS!!

C is for cookie! That's good enough for me!