Networks See Drop in Kids’ Audiences

Where are the kids?

That’s the question broadcast executives and advertisers are asking after seeing a ratings slide for children’s television this fall.

CBS has suffered a precipitous drop in its Saturday morning schedule for kids. For the first five weeks of the season, its ratings are down 52% from last year among viewers aged 2 to 11.

Fox, the front-runner in children’s programming, is off 8% on Saturday mornings, while NBC is down 7% and WB 33%. Fox and WB also are drawing lower ratings for their weekday children’s fare.

In this environment, ABC feels it is “doing well,” a spokeswoman said, by holding the line with the same Saturday morning rating that it had last season, thanks to early positive response to Disney’s “Mighty Ducks” cartoon and “Brand Spanking New Doug,” a series it picked up from Nickelodeon.

There is plenty of irony there, for Nickelodeon seems to be where many of the networks’ lost children are turning up. The cable network for children is up 12% overall this season among the 2-to-11 crowd and 30% on Saturday mornings, where it is beating ABC, CBS, NBC and WB with reruns of network shows.

“If this trend continues, it could be disastrous for the broadcast networks,” said one ad agency executive who asked not to be identified. “Nickelodeon has created great loyalty among viewers, and kids are not growing up watching only [broadcast] shows on Saturday morning.”

While Nickelodeon is considered the main culprit in broadcasters’ losses, executives believe several other factors also are at work.

“Kids today have many entertainment options, and kids’ TV is a more competitive marketplace,” said Maureen Smith, vice president of planning and program scheduling for Fox Kids Network. “We expect the new Nintendo game will hurt us with older boys. . . . Kids are using their parents’ computers. And home videos for kids are a big market, too. I’ve seen some studies that indicated that the combined rating for kids watching home videos was equal to the rating delivered by some independent TV stations.”

The decline in viewership comes as the networks and other broadcasters are gearing up to begin providing three hours a week of educational programming for children next season, under terms of an agreement they reached with the Federal Communications Commission last summer. Many executives have worried that such shows will draw fewer viewers than entertainment programs, especially since cable competitors such as Nickelodeon are not bound by the same obligation.

Fox and WB, which program for children on weekdays and weekends, “can spread our educational hours throughout the schedule,” said WB network President Jamie Kellner. “For those networks that have only a Saturday morning presence [such as ABC, CBS and NBC], it’s going to be very hard to be competitive.”

Some in the TV industry are speculating that, if CBS’ numbers don’t improve, the network could walk away from programming for 2- to 11-year-olds on Saturday morning, as NBC did a few years ago by aiming at young teens--perhaps programming news on Saturday morning and providing its educational hours elsewhere in the schedule or through a “feed” to stations.

But the network has just signed a deal with Children’s Television Workshop, the producer of PBS’ “Sesame Street,” to provide educational shows. And David Poltrack, CBS’ vice president in charge of research, said, “We’re not walking away from our commitment to do educational shows for kids.”

Poltrack, who noted that children’s ratings are volatile, said that CBS’ Saturday morning rating increased from a 1.2 to a 2.1 last week. With that improvement, he said, “We’re not going to make any quick calls” in immediately revamping the schedule.

Apart from whether kids like the Saturday morning lineup, CBS executives say they have a real disadvantage compared to their competitors: While the network is doing well this season with older-skewing shows in prime time, it has virtually no promotional “platform” outside Saturday morning from which to reach children.

“Nickelodeon, Fox and WB all have places to cross-promote, and ABC has the Disney connection as well as its Friday night ‘TGIF’ lineup,” Poltrack said. “We’re going to have to come up with a movie tie-in or some new way to cross-promote our shows.”

Kellner of WB agreed: “If Nickelodeon is beating the broadcast networks with network reruns on Saturday morning, that says to me that we have a marketing problem, not a programming problem.”

Kellner said it was “far too early” to call the children’s race this season, noting that one of his network’s new shows, Damon Wayans’ “Waynehead,” doesn’t premiere until this Saturday.

But to help combat the erosion in ratings, Kellner plans to flip-flop the WB schedule on Saturdays, airing “Sylvester and Tweety” and younger-skewing shows later in the day, while putting on “Superman” and other older-skewing programs in the early morning. The move--which will take effect this Saturday--will be promoted with a new slogan and promotional campaign: “Big Kids Go First.”