Target Audience

. TV 6-8 (Littlies) – Boys particularly love animated content which is fast paced, although girls still enjoy cartoons. However girls tend to prefer live action shows such as Wizards of Waverly Place and Dog with a Blog. On the whole they prefer hour to be slapstick.

. TV 8-10 (Inbetweenies) – This age like to alternate between childish programmes and those that are slightly more grown up. The generally prefer live action but some boys still tend to stick to cartoons. They are beginning to enjoy more complex story lines.

. TV 10 – 12 (Tweens) – For this group real life content is a must. Older girls tend to enjoy a glimpse into the life style of the rich and famous.

Survey Results

The first part of our research was to survey people about their preferences for a children’s TV show. We asked a range of questions, for example what their favourite TV show was when they were younger and also questions which would influence the production of the product.

One question asked to influence the planning of our product was “What stereotypical character would be better suited for the main role.96% of people surveyed gave us an answer from the options provided. 47% of people said a loner would be better suited. 17% of people said that a nerd would be a suitable stereotype for the main role. Both alternative and arty/musical received 11% of the votes. Sporty and popular gained 5% of the votes. The remaining 4% commented in the other section and gave responses like someone who is socially awkward, which we would consider an attribute of the loner. From this questions results we have decided that the main character for our children’s TV show should be a loner, as this is what the majority of our target audience voted for.

The second question that we asked was what genre of music would be suited best for a children’s TV show. We gave four options; pop, rock, indie and other. Pop received the majority of the voted with 93%. Indie received 6% of the votes, nobody voted for Rock the remaining 1% commented in the other section. The comments in the other section were the same and said “Kids music”. Due to pop having the majority of votes this is the style of music that will be incorporated into our opening sequence.

Finally we asked about the TV shows the people surveyed watched when they were younger. Many of the responses were live actions shows, such as Tracey Beaker, Drake and Josh and Wizards of Waverly Place. By analysing them, we found that these shows may have been their favourites because they were easy to relate to as a child as the characters went to school and may end up in similar situations to their viewers. From this we feel that our characters in the sequence should easily relate to our audience in some manner.

We have decided from this to aim our show at an older age group, more towards the 'tweens' end of the spectrum which would allow us to incorporate a much more detailled and complex storyline that will be relevant and relatable to our audience. This allows the addition of the 'real-life' effect and highly encourages us to portray stereotypical characters which is a common factor in similar shows and is often expected from the target audience.

Ofcom Report

Online

The amount of time 8-11s and 12-15s spend online has more than doubled since 2005, from 4.4 hours a week in 2005 to 11.1 hours in 2015 for 8-11s and from 8 hours to 18.9 for 12-15s. In contrast, time spent watching TV has increased slightly among 8-11s (from 13.2 hours in 2005 to 14.8 hours in 2015) and has remained stable among 12-15s (from 14.7 to 15.5 hours).

12-15s now spend nearly three and a half hours a week more online than they do watching a TV set This overall increase in time spent online was also visible between 2014 and 2015, from an average of 12.5 hours to 13.7 hours a week among 5-15s. The increase is particularly evident among 12-15s, who now spend 18.9 hours a week online, up from 17.2 hours in 2014. This is nearly three and a half hours more than they spend watching television on a TV set (15.5 hours).

More children have internet access at home than in 2005… Although the proportion of children who go online, either at home or elsewhere, has not increased since 2014, ranging from 39% of 3-4s to almost all 12-15s (98%), it has increased only slightly since 2005 for 12-15s, when 94% used the internet at home or elsewhere1 . Access at home has increased more substantially. In 2005, 61% of 8-11s and 67% of 12-15s had access to the internet at home. In 2015 close to nine in in ten 8-11s (91%) and nearly all 12-15s (96%) have internet access at home, either through a fixed broadband connection or through using a mobile network signal. In 2005 less than two-thirds of these home connections were broadband and 21% of 8-11s and 28% of 12-15s still had dial-up.

Compared to 2005, more are going online in their bedroom In 2005 3% of 8-11s and 13% of 12-15s had internet access in their bedroom. In 2015 this has increased to 15% of 8-11s and 34% of 12-15s who have internet access via a desktop, laptop or netbook in their bedroom, and many also use portable devices, like tablets and mobiles, to go online

One in ten 5-15s now only go online using a device other than a desktop or laptop, an increase since 2014 Children aged 5-15 are less likely in 2015 than in 2014 to use a laptop or netbook (62% vs. 66%) or a desktop computer (28% vs. 32%) to go online. In contrast, one in ten 5-15s (11%)now go online only through a device other than a laptop, netbook or desktop computer; an increase since 2014 (from 8%)

TV use

There has been a small but potentially important decrease between 2014 and 2015 in the number of 8-11s and 12-15s who say they watch TV on a TV set The numbers of 8-11s and 12-15s who say they watch TV on a TV set has decreased since 2014 (97% vs. 99% for 8-11s and 95% vs. 100% for 12-15s); a small decrease but potentially important given the increase in viewing on alternative devices. The number of 5- 15s with access to a DVD player or Blu-ray recorder has also decreased, while the numbers of 5-15s watching TV on other devices, including tablets, mobile phones and games players, has increased: four in ten (43%) who watch on-demand content do so on devices other than a TV set.

For the first time in 2015, 12-15s who watch TV and YouTube content are more likely to say they prefer to watch YouTube In 2015 traditional TV is being challenged by other types of audio-visual content. Among 12- 15s who watch both TV and YouTube content, for the first time more say they prefer to watch YouTube videos (29% vs. 25% in 2014) than TV programmes (25% vs. 30% in 2014).

Parental Concerns and Mediation

Concerns about TV and gaming content have decreased among parents of 3-4s since 2014 Compared to 2014, parents of 3-4s whose child uses each medium are less likely to be concerned about television content (13% vs. 22%) and gaming content (9% vs. 15%), with no change for online content (12% in 2015). Concerns among parents of 5-15s remain unchanged, with 25% saying they are concerned about online content, followed by television content (22%) and gaming content (21%). About a quarter of parents of 8-15s, or fewer, have concerns about their child’s mobile phone use, with little variation by the age of the child.

Fewer parents across all age groups are very concerned about pre-watershed television content than in 2014 Parents of children in each age group from 3 to 15 whose child watches television are less likely than in 2014 to say they are very concerned about what their child has seen on television before the watershed, with overall concern now standing at one in ten parents of 3-4s (10%) and two in ten parents of 5-15s (20%).

Younger children are more likely than in 2014 to have parental controls set on the TV Children aged 3-4 (48% vs. 36%) and 5-7 (60% vs. 50%), in households where the child watches television on a television set, are now more likely than in 2014 to have parental controls set on their television service.

Controls on TV services have also increased for older children since 2005 In 2005 25% of parents whose children watched TV had set controls to restrict access to certain channels (25% parents of both 8-11s and 12-15s). In 2015 more than half (57%) of households with children aged 5-15 who watch TV have PIN controls to restrict access to particular channels or types of programmes, with this more likely among parents of 8-11s (61%) than parents of 12-15s (50%). This increase is likely to be linked to the increase in take-up of cable and satellite TV services, for which access controls are more likely to be set.

Example Demographic

Lauren (12) and Kaitlin (13)

Year 8 high school students
Hobbies include: drawing, singing and dancing
Favourite shows: Liv and Maddie, Tracy Beaker, iCarly and Girl Meets World
Enjoy watching shows that are relatable and entertaining