Streaming was supposed to be a lifeline for kids and family content. The latest numbers from MipJunior tell a different story: the lifeline is now a smaller order book.
Ampere Analysis senior research manager Cyrine Amor presented first-run SVOD kids TV orders of 88 for the 12 months to the first half of 2026, down from 196 in the equivalent 2022 window. That is a 55% drop. The figure did rise 22% from 72 in 2025, but the rebound starts from a much lower base and does not change the four-year trend.
More platforms, less new content
Children’s entertainment is now split across far more distribution windows. SVOD services stream 240,000 hours of kids content globally, with Netflix at 4,000 hours, Amor said. AVOD platforms carry 140,000 hours, including 24,000 on Tubi. YouTube counts 250 kids channels with more than 10 million subscribers each and around 300,000 hours of video, shorts and livestreams, roughly 80% of it preschool.
At the same time, streamers are favouring library titles. PlumResearch data quoted at MipJunior puts long-tail viewing at 90% of views and 75% of titles. As a result, the share of new content hours released in the previous five years has fallen: Amazon Prime Video went from 22% in July 2022 to 11% in July 2024, Disney from 23% to 13%, and Netflix from 48% to 36%.
Gen Alpha is choosing games
The audience shift compounds the financing problem. Ampere’s need-state work shows Gen Alpha turns to streaming or YouTube first for only two of six emotional needs. When this generation is bored, wants immersion or needs to take its mind off things, it reaches for video games and game apps. The old argument that parents keep streaming because kids rewatch favourite shows is weaker when the child demands a game instead.
Public broadcasters still lead commissions
Public service broadcasters remain the biggest source of kids first-run orders. The BBC, Germany’s ARD and other PSBs made 371 commissions in the 12 months to the first half of 2026. But their budgets are not growing fast enough to offset streamer caution.
Amor estimated public broadcaster revenue at $53 billion in 2026, compared with $174 billion for subscription OTT and $292 billion for other online ad revenue. EU inflation at 3.8% further erodes flat public budgets. Evan Shapiro, who delivers the closing MipJunior keynote, has made the case simply: "Public service media should be cherished."
- SVOD kids TV orders: 196 in the year to H1 2022, 88 in the year to H1 2026.
- Long-tail viewing: 90% of streamer views and 75% of titles.
- PSB kids commissions: 371 in the 12 months to H1 2026.
For producers and media planners, the framework is to separate reach from financing. YouTube and AVOD offer cheap preschool reach, PSBs offer mission-driven commissions, and SVOD offers a selective, catalogue-oriented premium window. A property that depends on one SVOD greenlight is exposed to the same long-tail shift that is reducing new-content shelf space.
Source: Variety
