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The major problem for so many kids content producers these days is getting their series financed. Many are now at Mipcom, the world’s biggest annual TV confab set to take place from Monday in Cannes, the same French
Riviera city that hosts the legendary film festival.
Proceedings kicked off Saturday with MipJunior, the kids & family prolog to Mipcom proper.
In a brief but bracing scene-setting snapshot of the 2026 kids content market which helped kick off MipJunior proceedings, Ampere Analysis Senior Research Manager Cyrine Amor unveiled the plummet in streamer orders over just the last four years, and why.
Plunging Streamer Orders
Last decade, new streaming services were hailed as the great hope for the kids & family entertainment industry. Parents will not want to pull a service providing their kids’ favorite TV shows; kids love repeated viewing, the arguments went.
10 years later, streaming service first run orders have fallen fast. SVOD service Kids TV orders plunged from 196 over 12 months to first half 2022 to 88 during 12 months to first half 2026. That does represent a 22% uptick over a 2025 figure of 72, Amor noted. But it comes from a radically lower base.
The Ever Larger Competition
What’s happened? First, kids entertainment is now available across multiple newer platforms. SVOD operators stream 240,000 hours of annual content globally, Netflix alone 4,000 hours, Amor said at the presentation. Yet AVOD offers 140,000 hours a year around the world, just Tubi 24,000. And YouTube has 250 kids channels with over 10 million subs and a 300,000 hour total across videos, shorts and livestream of which 80% are pre-school channels.
Also, Streaming Audiences Are Focusing on Goldie-Oldies
Also – and this is true of audiences at large for series and movies – according to Ampere Analyis’ PlumResearch, streaming services have discovered that most of their viewing is long tail, which accounts for a stunning 90% of views and 75% of titles. Think “Star Trek,” “Dark,” “Archer” and “Primal,· not first run-hits such as “Squid Game.” SVOD operators have reacted. Share of “new content” hours (first released during the previous five years), has halved on Amazon Prime Video from 22% in July 2022 to 11% in July 2024. Disney is down from 23% to 13% same time period. Netflix has made a larger attempt to place first run commissions. Yet even its share of new content has dropped from 48% to 36%.
Gen Alpha Prefers Video Games
Compounding matters, it’s not clear Gen Alpha is primarily interested in streaming services, even YouTube. Different need states are associated with distinct primary media services for Gen Z, said Amor, When it comes to four of six of them – “when I’m bored”; “want to be immersed”; “want to discover something new” and “want to take my mind off things” – Gen Z turns to streaming services. Yet Gen Alpha, born in the 2010s and early 202s, streaming services or You Tube are only first choice for two options. When Gen Alphas want to be immersed, or to take its mind of things or is bored, it will turn to video games or game apps.
The Bigger Picture
Netflix animation execs are passionate about their job and percipient. But they’ve never signed on the bottom line to be the saviours of anything. And why should they? They’re a private-sector business. That role corresponds to public service broadcasters which do have a brief to ensure educative children’s entertainment.
Here, though MipJunior kicks off blessed by early fall sun, the outlook is cloudy.
PBSs like the BBC and Germany ARD stand proud as the biggest source of kids content first-run orders, making 371 commissions over the 12 months to first half 2026. “Public service media should be cherished,” Evan Shapiro, who delivers a closing keynote at MiJunior Oct. 11, once said. T
The bad news: Public broadcaster revenues have plateaued, said Amor, with an estimated $53 billion revenues in 2026. That pales before $174 billion for subscription OTT and a jaw-dropping $292 billion for other online ad revenues in 2026, Amor said.
Factor in inflation, currently at 3.8% in the E.U. and public broadcaster revenues are wilting. They are moreover an easy target for broadcaster budget cuts in the future.
