How Young Children Are Watching TV: From the June 2011 Rating Survey on Young Children s TV Viewing March,2012 By Kyoko Tsukamoto Introduction This paper reports on the results from the Rating Survey on Young Children s TV Viewing conducted at the same time as the National Individual Audience Rating Survey of June 2011, which covers all viewers nationally aged seven years and older. 1 The survey was conducted over the week of June 6 (Monday) to June 12 (Sunday) and covers children aged two to six years old (those not yet attending school) living within a 30-kilometer radius of Tokyo. The survey subjects were 1,000 children selected in stratified two-stage random sampling (10 children in each of 100 areas) from the Basic Resident Register, and the survey administered by mail (15-minute diaries filled out by the subjects caretakers). The number of valid respondents was 638 persons, or 63.8%. The composition of the response sample is given in Table 1. As 96% of respondents were the subjects mothers (responses were requested from the caretaker who looks after the child the most), this paper uses the term mothers to refer to the caretakers. Table 1. Composition of the Sample Total Male Female 2 yrs 3 yrs 4 yrs 5-6 yrs Nursery school Kindergarten Other Unknown 638persons 330 308 118 174 155 191 207 305 125 1 100% 51.7 48.3 18.5 27.3 24.3 29.9 32.4 47.8 19.6 0.2 1. Television Viewing (1) Daily television viewing time of 2 hours and 7 minutes The survey shows that the average TV viewing time per day is 2 hrs 7 min, among children aged two to six years, remaining almost the same as their level of the previous year (see Figure 1). Figure 1. Television viewing time over time (per day, weekly average) hr:mm 3:00 2:00 1:00 0:00 2:25 1:30 0:54 2:43 2:42 1:46 2:36 2:34 2:34 2:29 1:38 1:34 1:33 1:37 1:33 1:00 1:04 1:02 1:03 0:57 0:56 2:15 2:19 1:24 1:31 0:50 0:48 2:00 TV Total 2:07 2:07 2:05 2:07 Commercial TV Total 1:19 1:20 1:18 1:15 1:14 0:41 0:47 0:49 0:51 0:54 NHK TV Total** *Children s survey not conducted in 2004. **BS Hi-Vision added to NHK TV total as of 2008.
Total viewing times for NHK were 54 min with NHK General TV (GTV) at 3 min, Educational TV (ETV) at 49 min, and broadcast satellite (BS) television at 0 min, and for commercial TV 1 hr 14 min. Looking at total television time for individual brackets and by gender, the differences between the age brackets and gender brackets are statistically insignificant (see Table 2). In the public/commercial breakdown, total NHK viewing times are short among children aged 5-6 years at 39 min versus 58 min for children aged 2-3 years and 59 min for children aged 4 years. Total commercial TV viewing times among children aged 5-6 years are long at 1 hr 20 min, approximately double the figure for NHK viewing times. No changes were observed for any age bracket or either gender when comparing with the total television viewing times for each of the previous two years. Table 2. NHK and commercial TV average viewing time by gender and age(per day, weekly averages) (hr: min) Total Male Female 2 yrs 3 yrs 4 yrs 5-6 yrs NHK TV Total Commercial TV Total TV Total 2009 0:49 0:48 0:49 0:55 0:52 0:52 0:40 2010 0:51 0:50 0:51 0:59 0:59 0:47 0:42 2011 0:54 0:51 0:55 0:58 0:58 0:59 0:39 2009 1:18 1:24 1:11 0:56 1:16 1:20 1:27 2010 1:15 1:19 1:11 1:07 1:02 1:13 1:31 2011 1:14 1:13 1:15 1:10 1:14 1:10 1:20 2009 2:07 2:12 2:00 1:52 2:09 2:12 2:07 2010 2:05 2:09 2:02 2:07 2:01 1:59 2:13 2011 2:07 2:04 2:09 2:08 2:12 2:10 1:59 Looking at viewing hours by day of the week, average weekday viewing hours were 2 hrs 7 min; those for Saturday were 1 hr 55 min; and those for Sunday were 2 hrs 23 min (see Table 3). The increase in Sunday viewing hours from the previous year (2 hrs 5 min) is believed to be due to the return to the regular programming schedule on Asahi of the cartoons Kamen Rider W (as its sequel, Kamen Rider OOO ) and Heartcatch Precure! (as its sequel Suite Precure ) on Sunday mornings that had been preempted the previous year by FIFA World Cup-related programming. Among age brackets, viewing hours for children aged 4 years and up were longer on Sundays than on weekdays. Table 3. Average day-of-week viewing time by gender and age (total TV) (hr:min) Total 2011 2010 2009 Male Female 2 yrs 3 yrs 4 yrs 5-7 yrs Weekdays 2:07 (2:07) (2:04) 2:02 2:10 2:12 2:13 2:09 1:53 Saturdays 1:55 (2:00) (1:55) 1:55 1:54 1:48 2:02 1:54 1:53 Sundays 2:23 (2:05) (2:24) 2:25 2:20 2:03 2:20 2:29 2:32 (2) Mothers attitudes to television Past survey results have demonstrated a relationship between the viewing hours of children and the viewing hours of their mothers. Applying this insight to the 2011 survey, we find that whereas children of mothers with long viewing times of three hours or more also have long viewing times of 3 hrs 12 min, those of mothers with short viewing times of under two hours have short viewing times of 1 hr 23 min, a difference of more than 60 minutes in television viewing times (see Table 4). Turning to trends in mothers viewing hours (see 2
Table 5), whereas the proportion of mothers reporting viewing times of 3 hours or more tracked at around 40% in the early 2000s, it had fallen to 29% by 2007 and in the 2011 survey reached 27%. Table 4. Children s viewing time by mother s viewing time (total TV per day, weekly average) Total Short Medium Long (< 2 hrs) (2-3 hrs) (> 3 hrs) 2009 2010 2:07 2:05 1:32 1:26 2:07 2:15 2:56 3:07 2011 2:07 1:23 2:12 3:12 Number of persons among 2011 sample 282 181 174 (hr:min) Table 5. Mothers viewing times since 1998 Short Medium Long (< 2 hrs) (2-3 hrs) (> 3 hrs) 1998 34.0 24.9 40.3 1999 35.2 25.1 39.7 2000 36.5 22.9 40.6 2001 36.1 24.9 39.1 2002 33.5 27.0 39.5 2003 35.6 24.2 39.6 2005 37.3 28.3 34.4 2006 43.1 21.3 35.0 2007 46.9 23.4 29.2 2008 45.6 23.0 30.1 2009 44.0 26.2 29.3 2010 46.5 26.2 26.8 2011 44.2 28.4 27.3 It has been noted in previous surveys that the increase in mothers working is a factor behind the fall in viewing hours among mothers. Whereas 30% of the mothers surveyed had jobs in 2000, that figure stood at 38% in the 2011 survey. As the number of mothers who work further increases, it is reckoned that the viewing hours of mothers will continue to fall and the viewing hours of their children will likewise decline from the present state of affairs. The 2011 survey also asked mothers how they controlled their children s TV watching. Over 60% of mothers reported applying rules of some sort to how their children watch television 14% with rules on both hours and programs watched, 26% with rules on hours watched, and 24% with rules on programs watched versus 34% who permitted children to watch as they please. Defining mothers with rules on both hours and programming as restricting both, those with rules on either hours or programming as restricting one factor, and those with no rules as non-restricting, and then looking at differences among them in viewing times, we find that television viewing hours grow longer the more lenient the restrictions, with viewing hours of 1 hr 43 min among those restricting both, 1 hr 56 min among those restricting one factor, and 2 hrs 38 min among those non-restricting (see Table 6). 3
Table 6. Children s viewing time by mother s viewing rules (total TV per day, weekly average) (hr:min) Restricting both Restricting one factor Non-restricting Total 2009 2:07 2010 2:05 2011 2:07 1:47 1:57 2:32 1:49 1:59 2:35 1:43 1:56 2:38 NOTE: Restricting both: rules on both hours and programming.restricting one factor: rules on either hours or programming. Non-restricting: permitting children to watch as they please. (3) Weekday television viewing is mornings and evenings Figure 2 charts children s television viewing over the course of a weekday in 30- minute intervals. The times that children tend to watch television are unchanged from previous years, being from 7:00 to 9:00 a.m. and 4:00 to 9:00 p.m. These morning and evening times feature broadcasts of cartoons and other programming intended for children that the children primarily watch. Figure 2. Total TV average viewing rates per 30-minute intervals (weekday average) 2010 2011 0.0 0.1 5 a.m. 0.2 0.3 1.8 1.3 6 7.3 8.6 27.5 29.5 7 42.8 40.7 41.8 42.3 8 25.9 26.4 7.1 7.3 9 3.7 2.5 1.7 1.3 10 1.2 0.8 0.8 0.8 11 0.8 0.9 2.3 2.4 0 p.m. 2.6 3.0 1.6 2.1 1 1.1 1.4 0.9 1.1 2 1.2 1.6 1.9 1.9 3 1.8 2.3 12.5 11.8 4 18.0 17.6 21.5 22.3 5 25.1 25.9 26.3 26.1 6 32.0 26.7 39.7 36.2 7 33.7 30.8 14.7 15.6 8 12.4 13.7 4.7 7.0 9 3.2 4.5 1.5 2.0 10 1.0 1.2 0.4 0.3 11 0.3 0.2 hr 2010 2011 0 10 20 30 40 50 4
(4) Popular channel is Education The data on average viewership for individual NHK and commercial TV channels (see Table 7) shows that ETV is the most popular channel both morning and afternoon (morning 6.9%, afternoon 4.2%). The average for one day is also high at 4.3%, reflecting the extremely significant presence of ETV in children s television viewing. The highest latenight viewership, however, is for Fuji TV at 3.7%, followed by NTV at 2.6%. Table 7. Average audience ratings by channel (weekly average) GTV ETV NTV TBS Fuji Asahi Tokyo 2009 2010 2011 2009 2010 2011 2009 2010 2011 2009 2010 2011 2009 2010 2011 2009 2010 2011 2009 2010 2011 Morning 0.4 0.4 0.3 5.5 5.9 6.9 0.9 0.8 0.8 0.5 0.4 0.4 1.2 1.3 1.0 1.2 0.7 1.1 2.2 1.7 1.2 Afternoon 0.1 0.2 0.2 3.6 4.1 4.2 0.5 0.5 0.7 0.2 0.2 0.3 0.6 0.7 0.6 0.1 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.1 Evening 0.6 0.6 0.5 2.1 1.6 1.5 1.6 2.2 2.6 1.1 1.0 1.0 4.4 3.3 3.7 1.6 1.8 1.9 1.4 2.4 1.6 Full day 0.4 0.4 0.3 3.8 4.0 4.3 1.0 1.1 1.3 0.6 0.5 0.6 2.0 1.7 1.7 1.0 0.9 1.1 1.3 1.4 1.0 NOTE: Morning: 5:00 a.m. to noon, afternoon: noon to 6:00 p.m., evening: 6:00 p.m. to midnight; full day: 5:00 a.m. to midnight. Looking next at the proportion of children watching at least some of a channel (its weekly reach), during the week of the survey ETV was the most watched (81%), maintaining its high level (see Table 8). Table 8. Weekly reach by channel (full-week) 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 All channels 96 96 98 98 96 96 GTV 29 24 30 24 25 24 ETV 78 80 80 81 77 81 NTV 65 57 54 54 55 54 TBS 58 44 47 39 37 34 Fuji 74 74 77 76 67 69 Asahi 75 69 66 71 62 69 Tokyo 68 61 63 66 59 55 Reviewing weekly reach levels for all broadcasters over the past 10 years, ETV has maintained the same level since 2006 and NTV since 2008, but for all other broadcasters weekly reach has been on a downward trend with TBS experiencing the most striking drop. Looking at weekly reach by age group (see Table 9), ETV reach was highest among all age brackets compared to other broadcasters. In previous surveys, the reach of ETV tended to decrease with age, but that age-based differential was not apparent this year. For commercial broadcasters, on the other hand, there is a tendency for reach to increase with age. Table 9. Weekly reach by channel and age bracket (full-week) Total 2 yrs 3 yrs 4 yrs 5-6 yrs GTV 24 20 25 23 25 ETV 81 83 81 81 79 NTV 54 53 49 58 57 TBS 34 39 30 32 35 Fuji 69 64 64 70 75 Asahi 69 58 64 72 78 Tokyo 55 35 47 60 69 5
(5) Frequent viewing of Sazae-san Among both NHK and commercial TV fare, popular programs among children are led by Sazae-san (39.4%), followed by Chibi Maruko-chan (37.0%), both on Fuji, and With Mother (36.9%) on ETV (see Table 10). Following With Mother, other ETV programs in the top ten are Peek-a-boo, Kid s Discovery, and Curious George. Table 10. Popular programs on NHK and commercial TV (minimum 10-minute broadcast time) Day Time slot Channel Title Rating Sun. 6:30 p.m. Fuji Sazae-san 39.4 Sun. 6:00 p.m. Fuji Chibi Maruko-chan 37.0 Fri. 8:01 a.m. ETV # With Mother 36.9 Fri. 7:00 p.m. Asahi Doraemon 33.0 Tue. 8:25 a.m. ETV # Peek-a-boo 32.8 Sun. 8:00 a.m. Asahi Kamen Rider OOO 31.1 Fri. 7:30 p.m. Asahi Shin-chan 30.3 Thu. 7:45 p.m. ETV # Kid s Discovery 29.8 Sun. 8:30 a.m. Asahi Suite Precure 28.4 Sat. 8:35 a.m. ETV Curious George 27.8 NOTE: # in this table and the following indicates a broadcast with the highest rating in a series during the given week. (6) Most-watched ETV at age two and three Next, looking at program rankings by age (see Table 11); ETV programs were most watched by children aged 2-3 years and commercial broadcasters programs by children aged 4 and older. Programs with high viewership among all age brackets were Sazae-san, Chibi Maruko-chan, With Mother, and Peek-a-boo. Sazae-san and Chibi Maruko-chan were in the top four among all age brackets, showing that they are extremely well watched across a broad age range. With Mother was top among all age brackets excepting children aged 5-6 years. Among two-year-olds, eight of the top ten programs were on ETV, the exceptions being Sazae-san and Chibi Maruko-chan. Among three-year-olds, like two-year-olds With Mother was the most watched program, followed by Peek-a-boo. The number of programs from commercial broadcasters (5) occupying the top ranks for this age bracket was higher than that for two-year-olds. Likewise, there are more programs from commercial broadcasters (6) than from ETV (4) among the top-ranked programs for four-year-olds. That number rises even further for five- and six-year-olds (9). Parenthetically, there is a tendency for children with elder siblings to watch commercial TV programs more frequently than children without one(see Table 12). There was no difference in the average ages of children with elder siblings (327 children) and the average ages of those without (310). 6
Table 11. Popular programs on NHK and commercial TV by age (minimum 10-minute broadcast time) 2 yrs 3 yrs Day Time slot Channel Title Rating Day Time slot Channel Title Rating Mon. 8:01 a.m. ETV # With Mother 39 Tue. 8:01 a.m. ETV # With Mother 43 Thu. 8:25 a.m. ETV # Peek-a-boo 36 Tue. 8:25 a.m. ETV # Peek-a-boo 40 Sun. 6:30 p.m. Fuji Sazae-san 34 Sun. 6:30 p.m. Fuji Sazae-san 37 Sun. 6:00 p.m. Fuji Chibi Maruko-chan 34 Sun. 6:00 p.m. Fuji Chibi Maruko-chan 34 Sat. 8:35 a.m. ETV Curious George 30 Thu. 7:45 a.m. ETV # Kid s Discovery 33 Sat. 8:25 a.m. ETV Quintet 30 Fri. 7:00 p.m. Asahi Doraemon 33 Tue. 5:50 p.m. ETV # Hook Book Row 28 Sun. 8:00 a.m. Asahi Kamen Rider OOO 31 Thu. 8:45 a.m. ETV # Fun with English 28 Sat. 8:35 a.m. ETV Curious George 29 Sat. 8:00 a.m. ETV With Mother Saturday 28 Mon./Tue 5:30 p.m. ETV # Hanakappa 27 Tue. 5:40 p.m. ETV # Cooking Idol I! My! Mine! 28 Tue. 5:40 p.m. ETV # Cooking Idol I! My! Mine! 27 Sun. 8:30 a.m. Asahi Suite Precure 27 4 yrs 5-6 yrs Day Time slot Channel Title Rating Day Time slot Channel Title Rating Thu. 8:01 a.m. ETV # With Mother 46 Sun. 6:30 p.m. Fuji Sazae-san 43 Sun. 6:00 p.m. Fuji Chibi Maruko-chan 42 Fri. 7:00 p.m. Asahi Doraemon 41 Sun. 6:30 p.m. Fuji Sazae-san 42 Fri. 7:30 p.m. Asahi Shin-chan 41 Fri. 7:45 a.m. ETV # Kid s Discovery 39 Sun. 6:00 p.m. Fuji Chibi Maruko-chan 38 Fri. 7:00 p.m. Asahi Doraemon 37 Sun. 8:00 a.m. Asahi Kamen Rider OOO 36 Thu. 7:30 a.m. ETV # Fun with Japanese 36 Sun. 8:30 a.m. Asahi Suite Precure 33 Sun. 8:00 a.m. Asahi Kamen Rider OOO 36 Tue. 8:01 a.m. ETV # With Mother 29 Thu. 8:25 a.m. ETV # Peek-a-boo 34 Sun. 7:30 a.m. Asahi Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger 28 Sun. 8:30 a.m. Asahi Suite Precure 33 Thu. 7:00 p.m. Tokyo Pocket Monster BW 27 Fri. 7:30 p.m. Asahi Shin-chan 32 Mon. 7:00 p.m. Tokyo Tamagotchi! 26 Tue. 8:25 a.m. ETV # Peek-a-boo 26 Tue. 7:45 a.m. ETV # Kid s Discovery 26 Table 12. Popular programs, NHK and commercial TV, by elder sibling presence (minimum 10- minute broadcast time) With elder sibling Without elder sibling Day Time slot Channel Title Rating Day Time slot Channel Title Rating Sun. 6:30 p.m. Fuji Sazae-san 43 Fri. 8:01 a.m. ETV # With Mother 40 Fri. 7:00 p.m. Asahi Doraemon 42 Sun. 6:30 p.m. Fuji Sazae-san 36 Sun. 6:00 p.m. Fuji Chibi Maruko-chan 42 Tue. 8:25 a.m. ETV # Peek-a-boo 34 Fri. 7:30 p.m. Asahi Shin-chan 40 Sat. 8:25 a.m. ETV Quintet 33 Tue. 8:01 a.m. ETV # With Mother 36 Sat. 8:35 a.m. ETV Curious George 33 Sun. 8:00 a.m. Asahi Kamen Rider OOO 34 Sun. 6:00 p.m. Fuji Chibi Maruko-chan 32 Tue. 8:25 a.m. ETV # Peek-a-boo 32 Thu. 7:45 a.m. ETV # Kid s Discovery 32 Sun. 8:30 a.m. Asahi Suite Precure 30 Sat. 8:00 a.m. ETV With Mother Saturday 32 Tue. 7:45 a.m. ETV # Kid s Discovery 28 Sun. 8:00 a.m. Asahi Kamen Rider OOO 28 Thu. 7:00 p.m. Tokyo Pocket Monster BW 26 Mon. 5:30 p.m. ETV # Hanakappa 28 Fri. 7:30 a.m. ETV # Fun with Japanese 28 7
2. Video Recordings (1) High recording usages among two-year-olds At 40 minutes, average daily video recording playback time (including children without equipment) was unchanged from the previous year (40 min). Broken down by age bracket (see Table 13), playback time was longest among two-year-olds at 49 min, compared with 41 min among three-year-olds, 34 min among four-year-olds, and 39 min among fiveand six-year-olds. Table 13. Video recording playback time per day (weekly average) (minutes) Total Male Female 2 yrs 3 yrs 4 yrs 5-6 yrs 2009 39 43 33 44 40 36 34 2010 40 44 34 50 43 34 35 2011 40 41 40 49 41 34 39 The times of day with high utilization of video recordings are the 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. time slots on weekdays, 8:00 to 10:00 a.m. on both Saturdays and Sundays, and 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. on Saturdays (see Figure 3). Figure 3. Video equipment utilization per 30-minute intervals (5:00 a.m. to midnight) Weekdays Saturday Sunday 0.1 0.2 0.0 5 a.m. 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.5 0.4 0.7 6 1.3 1.2 1.5 2.4 4.2 3.2 7 2.8 6.1 4.5 3.4 7.3 7.4 8 2.6 7.3 8.3 2.3 11.4 11.7 9 2.8 11.2 9.4 2.5 9.7 7.8 10 2.1 8.7 5.2 1.5 6.6 3.8 11 1.0 5.1 4.2 1.1 4.2 3.3 0 p.m. 1.3 4.8 3.5 1.5 4.7 3.9 1 1.4 3.4 3.2 1.5 4.4 3.3 2 1.6 3.9 2.7 3.0 5.2 5.2 3 3.4 5.2 5.3 4.5 8.4 6.9 4 4.2 8.7 6.9 5.5 9.0 5.7 5 6.7 8.9 4.9 8.6 8.4 3.5 6 8.5 8.4 3.5 7.7 8.3 4.8 7 7.7 7.6 4.6 8.4 6.5 5.1 8 6.8 5.8 4.2 3.7 3.9 3.2 9 2.6 3.0 2.1 0.9 1.5 1.3 10 0.4 0.7 0.6 0.2 0.5 0.3 11 0.1 0.3 0.0 hr Weekdays Saturday Sunday 0 5 10 15 8
(2) Trends in video equipment In response to the question of how much viewer-recorded programming and commercial video/dvd recordings was watched during a single day, watch for a long time (1 hr or more) was given more frequently for viewer-recorded programming (21%) than commercial recordings (13%). Conversely, the answer of hardly ever or never watch was given more frequently for commercial recordings (47%) than viewer-recorded programming (32%). 1 See Akihiro Hirata, Kyoko Tsukamoto, and Kumiko Nishi, The Present State of TV Viewing and Radio Listening From the National Individual Audience Rating Survey of June 2011, The NHK Monthly Report on Broadcast Research, September 2011. 9