Abstract
This paper reports the current status of young children's viewing of TV in real time and of recorded programs, DVDs, and internet videos based on the “Rating Survey on Young Children's TV Viewing” held in June 2021. The survey was conducted over a week from June 28th (Monday) through July 4th (Sunday), aiming at 1,000 young children aged two through six living within 30km radius of Tokyo.
The survey finds young children's viewing time of television (real-time viewing) per day was 57 minutes, with 19 minutes for recorded programs/DVDs (time-shifted viewing) and 33 minutes for internet videos (respective weekly average). In terms of weekday ratings (utilization rates) by 30 minutes, the aggregated ratings for real-time TV viewing between 8:00am and 8:30am dropped from 2019 while the figures for internet viewing rose between 8:00am and 8:30am, 4:00pm and 5:30pm, and 6:00pm and 8:30pm, which shows the growing presence of internet videos.
Regarding most-watched content, top ten TV titles were all NHK ETV programs for young children and/or children. Most-watched recorded programs included titles that were not rated high for real-time viewing such as “Anpanman,” and most-watched internet videos included YouTube original content originated from TV programs such as “Pokémon.”
For parents' attitudes, the survey finds a tendency that internet videos were received more negatively than TV programs were. However, compared to 2019, negative opinions for the internet videos decreased and positive ones increased.
Comparing weekday media use of nursery school children with that of kindergarten children, differences were found in their ratings and viewing hours of TV programs as well as of internet videos, influenced by the difference in time use in their daily lives.
