First session on the first full day of the Children’s Media Conference I attended a session titled “Coming together or falling apart?” The session included executives from several UK children’s media companies, including Nickelodeon UK, Nosy Crow, HIT Entertainment, and MakieLab. The goal of the session was to project a vision for the children’s media environment in the year 20202.
The moderator put forth four scenarios:
1) Digital media eats the world
2) Playing to win (games industry takes over)
3) The death of print
4) A thousand flowers bloom (massive fragmented choice and media properties flower and die much more quickly)
An interesting point made in the session was that if audiences won’t or don’t pay money for the content they consume, then the revenue push will come from consumer products related to those media properties. So if advertising around kids media is limited, the creators/owners will simply put their emphasis on “stuff” kids can buy related to that media. More stuffed animals. More games for purchase. More logo lunch boxes. We simply cannot avoid realizing that making media costs money to do and that money has to come from somewhere. What does this mean for the consumerization of kids?
Other key points made during the session?
1) It’s a connected ecosystem between TV, games, apps, etc.
2) There is more fragmentation and more consolidation (among companies)
3) Digital first is the norm
4) Film and TV are still on top
5) Shifting cultural boundaries are affecting content (content being shared globally)