October 2014
From the June 2014 Rating Survey on Young Children’s TV Viewing
Yoko Watanabe
The author reports young children’s TV viewing and usage of recorded programs and DVDs from the results of the “Rating Survey on Young Children’s TV Viewing” which was conducted in June 2014. The survey was carried out for a week from June 2nd (Monday) through June 8th (Sunday), targeting 1,000 children aged two to six living within 30 kilometer radius of the Tokyo metropolitan area. The findings include the following.
Young children’s TV viewing time per day was 1 hour 49minutes (weekly average). The average TV viewing time had been stable, with around 2 hours, since 2007, but it did not reach 2 hours in 2012 for the first time, and no recovery was made in 2014, following the previous year. Most viewed TV titles during the survey period were commercial broadcasters’ cartoons such as Sazae-san and Chibi Maruko-chan as well as NHK ETV’s pre-school programs such as With Mother and Curious George. Commercial TV’s new program Youkai Watch was also popular, marking 26.6%, and the overall ratings in the latter 6 p.m. time slot on weekdays have increased from the previous year.
It is also revealed average time spent for watching recorded programs or DVDs was 54 minutes per day (weekly average), which is an increase from two years ago (46 min.) The survey shows the gap between the real-time TV viewing time and the viewing time of recorded programs DVDs is gradually narrowing.