Cable viewership among kids 6-11 was down 13 percent in the first quarter, following a 6 percent decline in Q4 2011. At the same time, 70 percent of children under 12 in homes with tablets use them regularly, and 51 percent of kids between five and eight across all households are on the computer several times a week, signaling a problem for children’s TV programming.

“[Kids] can’t just get on the Internet with the iPad, which is why parents are so comfortable with it,” says Felicia Thomas of ID Media. “Younger children are going to watch television, but children in their teens and tweens know how to get onto the Internet and play video games and watch YouTube, so you’re definitely going to see a shift with the older kids.”

Nickelodeon took a 17 percent year-over-year hit among kids 2-11, the network’s target demographic, down another 25 percent this quarter. With SpongeBob SquarePants streaming online and iCarly slowing down, the network is hoping its music-oriented programs will help turn things around.

“Nickelodeon has no intention of letting the recent ratings slip slow down our creative momentum,” Cyma Zarghami, president of Nick and MTV Networks’ Kids & Family Group.

Advertisers aren’t abandoning Nick just yet. “I don’t think we were ever worried,” says one ad buyer. “You don’t ever want to see a massive ratings drop, [but] our GRPs are guaranteed.”

Meanwhile, Disney is regularly outpacing Nick in the ratings and they are spinning off the Disney Junior programming block (which focuses on the 2-5 demo) into a full-blown network. “We’re pretty much neck and neck with Nick’s [preschool block],” says Gary Marsh, president and CCO of Disney Channels Worldwide.

Nielsen says that viewership among those under 12 was down 2.9 percent last year versus 2010, but it is noted that viewership is fragmented among more networks like The Hub, Disney XD and Sprout all gaining traction.“Television has by far the highest-share viewing among kids,” says Darcy Bowe, associate media director at Starcom. “There’s no evidence that they have decreased their share in viewing. The TV is still king in their world. I don’t think it fragments as much for them.”

Cartoon Network has a smaller audience, but it grew over last year and is pushing the cable-authenticated streaming TV Everywhere initiative. “We have shows up through VOD, through our MSOs and so forth,” says Stu Snyder, president and COO of Cartoon Network.

Still, cross platform can result in mixed blessings – Cartoon Network’s 28 branded games based on Ben 10 moved a total of 10.26 million units and Disney’s Epic Mickey sold just 2.5 million copies, which isn’t quite as much as licenced games used to do in the past. Still, Channel’s TV movie Phineas and Ferb: Across the Second Dimension scored an average of 7.6 million viewers and the seven-day DVR numbers expanded the audience to 10.7 million.

The lesson from all of this is that everyone wants multiplatform entertainment, not just kids, and if they can’t get it from networks, they’ll get it where they can.

Source: AdWeek.com