57% kids prefer TV, only 10% receive their entertainment via OTT says a study conducted by Sony YAY!

Leading kids’ entertainment channel Sony YAY! has for the first time released its latest survey, titled ‘SearchLight’22 – Decoding Lives and Habits of Indian Kids’, in collaboration with Kantar Research. The psychometric profiling by the survey presents crucial findings that highlight various trends across eight cities in the country.

The research derives its findings between educational and personal development and also entertainment preferences. It offers an insightful deep dive into India’s young audiences aged between 7-14 years. It also undertakes region-wise bifurcation of the data, considering India’s geographical and cultural diversities, to highlight the preferred activities of kids from region specific markets.

To understand the parallel between the various platforms of entertainment, the survey translates the following findings with respect to Television and OTT viewing amongst kids:

• 57% kids prefer television while only 10% receive their entertainment via OTT
• 33% kids prefer to watch both television and OTT
• Younger kids prefer television while older kids with more access to OTT platforms lean towards it
• There exists a clear geographical divide in kids’ preference for OTT entertainment where only 81% of Kids surveyed in southern India preferred OTT as opposed to 56% of kids surveyed in eastern India.

The journey from blackboards to keyboards is what kids witnessed through the pandemic, thus, to understand their learning preferences, SearchLight’22 sheds a few insights:

• Kids favoured online classes over offline classes due to rewatch option of online classes (29%), the comfort of home (28%), followed by the ability to attend classes they usually can’t physical (16%) and save time (15%)
• The top 5 activities participated by kids during the pandemic were tuition classes (76%), art & Craft (24%), followed by sports (19%), dancing (18%) and singing (19%)
• The majority of respondents wished for lessons to be held online (63%) while the rest wanted to go back to the pre-pandemic style of offline teaching (37%)
• Edutech platforms which rose to prominence during the lockdown saw that only 6% of respondents had Edutech subscriptions while 7% respondents had not subscribed but attended Edutech classes. However, 39% had opted to use YouTube videos to learn concepts while 48% were not aware of the existence of Edutech platforms

With kids being limited to their homes owing to movement restrictions due to the pandemic, gaming became an essential part of kids’ entertainment. Following insights were inferred from the survey:

• One out of two kids enjoyed gaming on their phone
• Free games were core to their consumption
• 53% preferred to play solo while 44% were included in multiplayer games with friends and only 4% played multiplayer games with strangers

With ‘SearchLight’22 – Decoding Lives and Habits of Indian Kids’, Sony YAY! takes a step closer to understanding the dynamic and evolving preferences and habits of Kids. The study also provides a comprehensive look at how multiple verticals of education, entertainment, gaming and merchandising affects kids and shape their opinions or preferences. This foundational study explores newer avenues to get to know kids better.

The survey was carried out in association with Kantar IMRB in October-November 2021, to understand consumption habits of kids across the country. The survey was further conducted across 8 cities with 982 kids and 316 parents.

Commenting on the story, Leena Lele Dutta, Business Head, Sony Pictures Networks India, Kids’ Genre, said, “As a brand practice, we constantly aim to follow an approach to “Explore” and understand our young audiences and their dynamic choices to deliver a wholesome experience across the platforms. With the release of Searchlight’2022, we are happy to present our learnings to the industry at large and assist in understanding this dynamic Target Group better.” BCS Bureau