儿童节目并非儿戏

Business

商业

Entertainment -- No child's play

娱乐——并非儿戏

Streaming giants get more serious about children's shows

流媒体巨头们更加认真地对待对儿童节目

The pandemic has been tough for parents of young children.

这场疫情对家中有小孩的父母来说一直很艰难。

With schools shut, many had to keep an eye on their offspring while juggling chores and remote work.

由于学校停课，许多家长不得不一边照看孩子，一边忙着做家务和远程工作。

Succour came courtesy of Hollywood.

好莱坞伸出援手。

A study by Parrot Analytics, a data firm, found that demand for children's shows in America -- measured by video views, social-media mentions, searches on IMDB, a platform for film buffs, and the like -- grew by nearly 60% from the start of 2020, before Covid-19 hit, to last September.

数据公司Parrot Analytics的一项研究发现，从2020年初（新冠疫情爆发前）到去年9月，美国对儿童节目的需求——通过视频浏览量、社交媒体提及量、电影爱好者平台IMDB上的搜索量等来判断——增长了近60%。

Demand for other genres rose by 23% in that period.

而在此期间，美国对其他类型节目的需求增长了23%。

At the same time, parental concerns about their progeny's media diets have grown.

与此同时，父母对子女的媒体摄入状况越来越担心。

A recent Pew survey found nearly half of parents saying that YouTube, the most popular destination for young audiences, exposed their children to inappropriate content.

皮尤最近的一项调查发现，近一半的父母表示，年轻受众最喜欢的网站油管让他们的孩子接触到了不适宜的内容。

Many are chary of social-media apps such as TikTok, one-third of whose users may be under the age of 14, according to internal data seen by the New York Times.

《纽约时报》了解到的内部数据显示，许多父母对抖音等社交媒体应用持谨慎态度，抖音有三分之一的用户年龄可能在14岁以下。

Fortunately, help is at hand.

幸运的是，救星即将到来。

Disney, arguably the child-friendliest brand of all, has created a new role tasked with seeking out external children's programming -- part of a reorganisation to separate content creation from merchandising.

迪士尼可以说是所有品牌中最适合儿童的，它设立了一个新的职位，负责寻找外部儿童节目——这是重组计划的一部分，目的是将内容创作与商品销售分离开来。

Paramount+ is promoting its Nickelodeon trove to parents.

派拉蒙+正在向家长们推广它的Nickelodeon宝库。

Its own parent, Viacom CBS, is reportedly in talks to buy the "Alvin and the Chipmunks" franchise from its creators for as much as $300m.

据报道，它的母公司维亚康姆哥伦比亚广播公司正在进行洽谈，打算以高达3亿美元的价格从《阿尔文与花栗鼠》的创作者手中买下该作品的特许经营权。

In September Netflix paid more than $700m for the Roald Dahl Story Company, which owns the rights to the eponymous author's beloved tales such as "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory".

9月，网飞斥资7亿多美元收购了罗尔德·达尔故事公司，该公司拥有罗尔德·达尔一些深受喜爱的童话故事的版权，比如《查理和巧克力工厂》。

In November it announced the launch of Kids Clips, which offers curated short videos from its expanding slate of children's programmes.

11月，该公司宣布推出“儿童精选短片”，提供从其不断扩大的儿童节目表中精选出来的短片。

Last autumn HBO Max, best-known for edgy grown-up fare, launched Cartoonito, a portal dedicated to pre-school shows.

去年秋天，以前卫的成人节目而闻名的HBO Max推出了“卡通频道”，这是一个专注于学龄前儿童节目的门户网站。

Upstarts are getting in on the action, too.

后起之秀也加入其中。

Kidoodle. tv, an ad-supported app that specialises in children's shows, has seen its downloads balloon during the pandemic.

Kidoodle. tv是一款由广告支撑的专门提供儿童节目的应用，疫情期间该应用的下载量激增。

In November two former Disney executives agreed to pay $3bn for Moonbug Entertainment, the company behind hit programmes like "Cocomelon" and "Blippi".

11月，两名迪士尼前高管同意斥资30亿美元收购Moonbug娱乐公司，该公司制作出了《Cocomelon》和《Blippi》等热门节目。

Youth programming is attractive to streaming services for several reasons.

青少年节目之所以吸引着流媒体服务平台有多个原因。

Children's television shows, especially animated ones, often cost less to produce than entertainment for adults, observes Erin Meyers of Oakland University.

奥克兰大学的艾琳·迈尔斯观察到，儿童电视节目，特别是动画节目，制作成本往往低于成人娱乐节目。

They tend to have a longer shelf life, too, since young children are less fussy than older viewers about what is hip at any given moment.

它们往往也拥有更长的保质期，因为小孩子在任何时候都不会像年龄大些的观众那样挑剔什么是时髦的。

And children's programming offers vast merchandising opportunities in the form of toys.

通过玩具的形式，儿童节目还提供了巨大的商品销售机会。

Most important, if you get it right you may be rewarded twice over: with current custom from grateful parents and, if their offspring like what they see, a guaranteed stream of future viewers.

最重要的是，如果你做好了，你可能会得到双倍的回报：现在有来自心怀感恩的父母的光顾，如果这些父母的孩子喜欢他们看到的东西，那么未来的观众流也有了保障。