The cartoon characters from the children’s show “Bluey” will be on display during the Brand Licensing Europe event in Excel, London on October 4, 2023.
John Keeble | Getty Images News | Getty Images
In the fight between streaming services to acquire and retain subscribers, children’s shows like “Coco Melon” and “Blue” are becoming powerful tools to win wars.
Retention customers have proven to be one of the biggest hurdles in streaming build-outs. when Netflix Reporting subscriber losses in 2022, sending ripple effects through the industry, and media companies began to lean towards advertising and other business models to focus on profitability.
On the other hand, I like companies Warner Bros Discovery and Disney They are speaking out about the need for quality content to drive subscriber growth. Programming for children offers a unique value proposition for streaming equations. It is cheaper and has a longer lifespan than other formats of content.
“Kids’ content encourages enormous engagement as kids watch it over and over again. They never get tired,” said Kevin Mayer, co-CEO of Candle Media, which owns Moonbug, a distributor of hit kids shows such as Coco Melon and Brippi.
Mayer said reducing churn — industry experts for customer loss — is the most important factor in improving the economics of streaming services, rather than attracting new subscribers or making revenue from those customers.
“Canceling will result in loss of subscribers and reduced topline. You will need to spend marketing dollars to resell to a lost subscriber or find something new,” Mayer says.
Children tend to repeat shows and movies, which are shown in the data. When “Coco Melon” first only had one season on Netflix, kids watched the same episode multiple times, said Brian Fuller, senior vice president of Nielsen’s product strategy and thought leadership.
According to a Nielsen report released in July, 154 episodes of the animated Australian hit series Bluey were seen over 25 billion minutes in the first half of 2025.
According to Nielsen, children’s films generally drive both box office revenue, and are many of the top streamed titles this year. Disney’s “Moana” is the most streamed film in history, and the sequel “Moana 2” had 7.2 billion viewing hours since its release on Disney+ in March, according to Nielsen.
Live sports and hit TV series are often believed to portray the biggest audience and drive the addition of short-term subscribers for streamers, but services with a strong portfolio of child content provide a reason to stick to parental subscriptions over the long term, industry analysts and experts told CNBC.
A fourth quarter video trends report from TIVO found out that of nearly 4,500 survey respondents in the US and Canada, those with children are not using the 13.6 service. Overall, reports from the fourth quarter of 2024 found that respondents had an average decline in service from 11.1 the previous year. Tivo’s report found people dropping streaming apps because they lacked usage rather than higher pricing.
Meanwhile, children returning home from school during the summer helped them spike both streaming and TV use in June, according to a recent Nielsen report. Total TV usage for ages 6-17 increased by 27% compared to the previous month, streaming 66% of the total time spent on TV in June.
Media companies’ strategies differ when it comes to using child content as a retention tool. Disney, Paramount Global Netflix is one of the streaming services with a deep library of child content. However, WBD has retreated from this genre. Most notably, it is based on the decision to waive the right to stream “Sesame Street.”
The new season of the iconic children’s show will be released on Netflix later this year, followed by two more seasons. Meanwhile, the new “Sesame Street” episode will also be available on PBS Kids and its YouTube channel.
Netflix reports that child and family content accounts for 15% of the company’s total viewing.
Part of the broader media strategy has come to mean joining forces with the largest competitors in the traditional media industry. alphabetYouTube.
YouTube Rising
Kid Cowboy Episode Still.
Courtesy: Nickelodeon
Even Netflix, the streaming juggernaut that has beaten the media industry, faces the reality that social media platform YouTube dominates streaming on television screens.
According to Nielsen, YouTube consistently brings out the highest TV viewership of all streaming platforms. As of June, YouTube accounted for 12.8% of TV overall streaming, surpassing Netflix and Disney+, Nielsen reported. In total, streaming viewers outperformed broadcasts and cable television.
“I think YouTube is part of everyone’s media strategy,” said Andy Heyward, a longtime media executive in the children’s television industry and CEO of Kartoon Studios. “More than anything, kids are consuming YouTube. But there’s so much there and it’s on top that you’re very, very unique.”
The YouTube strategy was an afterthought for many media companies, but that has since changed. That has changed, according to leading generation research as a former executive at WarnerBros.Discovery and subsequently co-founded research and strategy company Maverix Insights.
“If you’re not on YouTube, it’s like you don’t exist for your kids,” Raven said. “That’s where the eyes are.”
In response, traditional media companies are increasingly working with YouTube “as close-knit partners.” Creating and curating YouTube channels with specific content and clips from television networks, and even creating shows just for the platform, says Katie Kurtz, the global head of youth and learning at YouTube.
“I think some partners certainly know that they consider YouTube as an engine of discoverability. They want to make sure they see users where they are, so they are on YouTube as a way to connect with their audience,” Kurtz said.
The content Disney creates for YouTube will help complement the long-term series about Disney+ and its deeper engagement with its characters and stories.
Paramount believes it supports a library of kids programming that will help establish Paramount+ as one of the fastest growing streaming services, according to a spokesman. Franchises such as “Paw Patrol,” “Spongebob Squarepants,” and “Dora the Explorer” have been particularly successful.
Earlier this year, Paramount released its original animated series “Kid Cowboy” only on YouTube, even at its depth of child programming.
“We also know that a lot of our partners aren’t just building big YouTube channels in fact. They’re also thinking about building a really great next-generation character, some of which involve being YouTube first,” Kurtz said.
Coco Melon Crossover
Coco Melon.
Courtesy: Netflix
Meanwhile, traditional media companies are looking for new formats of content from YouTube to add to their platforms. In recent years, content makers that have started on YouTube have signed licensing transactions with top streaming services.
“We want to do the best creatives and business on the planet, no matter where we come from.”
“Coco Melon” stands out in particular.
The animated series will be broadcast on YouTube and still reach many of its audiences, but when Netflix acquired a subset of its content in 2020 it was a boost to Netflix viewers.
It has appeared in the top 10 Nielsen acquisition titles in total 179 times, and has appeared in the rankings 155 times in a row. However, it was last featured on the September 2024 list.
Despite the slowdown in viewers, “CocoMelon” was able to win a new subscription streaming home alongside Disney+ this year, according to people familiar with the issue that refused to speak publicly in private negotiations. Disney outperforms Netflix due to the rights to the program that began in 2027, and people said Netflix has refrained from filing higher bids. Netflix refused to renew its “Coco Melon” license due to a decline in audience, one of the people said.
On Netflix, the amount of time spent watching “Coco Melon” fell nearly 60% from the beginning of 2023 when it began releasing engagement data until the second half of 2024.
A Disney spokesperson said “Coco Melon” remains a prime destination for preschoolers, adding the show seamlessly to the preschool ecosystem and supporting engagement and retention with younger audiences, key drivers of the platform’s health.
Despite letting go of “Coco Melon,” Netflix is still investing in child content. Earlier this year, Netflix added “Ms. Rachel” content. It is programmed from YouTube creators of toddlers and preschool children’s content with nearly 16 million subscribers on the channel.
According to the company, the series has won the top 10 most-watched “shows” on Netflix globally for 17 weeks.
“There are creators that fit you on YouTube like Rachel,” Salandus said on a phone call Thursday. “If you’ve just seen it in the Engagement Report, she had 53 million views on Netflix in the first half of 2025. She obviously works for Netflix.”
