How Young Children Are Watching TV and DVDs

From the June 2018 Rating Survey on Young Children's TV Viewing

Abstract

This paper reports the current status of young children’s viewing of TV in real time and of recorded programs and DVDs based on the “Rating Survey on Young Children's TV Viewing” held in June 2018. The survey was conducted over a week, from June 4 (Monday) to June 10 (Sunday), aiming at 1,000 young children aged two through six living within 30km radius of Tokyo.TV viewing time per day for young children was 1 hour and 39 minutes (weekly average). The figure had been hovering at a little over 2 hours since 2007, and it did not reach 2 hours in 2012 for the first time and been on a gradual decline. Their time spent on viewing recorded programs/DVDs was 57 minutes per day (weekly average). The figure kept increasing from 2011 to 2013, and since then it has been remained at the same level, but the gap between TV viewing time and recorded program/DVD viewing time are narrowing.Supplementary questions find an increase in young children’s viewing of online videos while their viewing of recorded programs/DVDs stays at the same level. Regarding time spent on viewing online videos, those who “never or rarely watch” decreased from the 2016 level while long viewing (more than one hour) increased.Most watched program during the survey period included NHK ETV’s programs for young children such as “With Mother” and “Kid's Discovery” as well as commercial broadcasters' animation programs such as “DORAEMON” and “Shin chan.”