These are the television content that children prefer
In Spain there is regulatory legislation for television content that indicates the minimum age for viewing certain products and establishes different time slots that go from less to better protection depending on the time of day and the content that is issued. But does this regulation really have an effect on the use that minors make of television?
What content is indicated for people over 18 and that is issued in unprotected hours is enough for a child to access it? It is not impossible for any minor to visualize these contents since this regulation is based on recommendations. Therefore, the Association of Users of Communication, AUC, conducts a study every year together with Kantar Media to analyze the behavior of the audience, especially the minors.
TV schedules: what time do children watch television?
This study collects the data of various age groups that are organized according to the rating received by the contents that are subsequently broadcasted on television sets. Thus in the study are these sectors: 4-7 years, 7- 12 years, 12-16 years and 16-18 years. The results issued by AUC show that on average, these four groups they watch television 133 minutes a day, some numbers that are far from the general average that remains in the 234 minutes.
As for the time slot in which children watch television more, prime time is the time when this audience is in front of the screen. D22:00 to 24:00 is when 18.3% of this target is concentrated. The stretch of 20:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. is the second most attended by children with an average of 16.9%. However, the hours that have a reinforced hearing have lower percentages.
An example of this is the morning time slot that covers 08: 00- 09:00 only has a 5'4% of spectators. This data is understood if the contents that appear in these hours are analyzed since most of the open channels broadcast informative products that focus on a more adult audience. The second section that receives reinforced protection, the evening from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm, does present more audience of this target with 12%.
Based on these data, it can be deduced that minors watch television mostly in a time that escapes the protection that other sections of the day have. In this way it is possible that the contents that most children see are not those that are recommended for their ages, products for adults. This means that the most protected sections have less audience than those in which this protection disappears.
These are the television content that minors prefer
AUC also collects in this study those contents that had the most audience, as well as the most successful chains among children. In this way CLAN is the television channel that most children and young people monopolized in 2015 with 12.4% of that sector. Antena 3 appears in second place with 9'9%, followed by BOING with 9'8%. These numbers are interesting in that they show that two thematic chains with products focused on minors occupy the first and third place in the ranking of the most watched channels in this social sector.
In terms of specific content, movies like The Karate Kid or Frozen the ice kingdom they were the products most viewed by the youth and children's public. The first film mentioned monopolized a 13.1% of juvenile audience and the second one to 11.3%. It also highlights that from the fourth to the seventh place of this list the sports contents are the protagonists.
In fourth position is the program Champions Challenge, of TVE, which aglomeró to 10.1% of the audience. The next position in this ranking is occupied by the Eurobasket match between Spain and Lithuania. The sport reappears in ninth place with the Champions League match between Sevilla and Dnipro.
Attending the top 10 positions of the list of most viewed content, it can be seen that the products that were most successful in the children and youth audience were films recommended for their age and sports. In this way, the debate should not focus on the television content that minors can access, but rather the hours at which they consume it, since, as the youth and children have shown, they prefer products targeted for them but in Sometimes these are issued in late time slots.
Damián Montero
