Technology, kids, and telly

Recently, Channel 4 commissioned some research from OTX into the relationships that kids aged 12-24 have with technology. The report is called A Beta Life, and I thought I’d share a few of the salient points and how they relate to the future of television on and offline.

Some top-line stats may surprise you about the average 12-24 year old (or not, if you are one):

• They personally own 8 devices (including MP3 player, PC, TV, DVD player, mobile phone, stereo, games console, and digital camera)
• They frequently conduct over 5 activities whilst watching TV
• 25% of them agree that “I’d rather stay at home than go on a holiday with no internet or phone access”
• A quarter of young people interviewed text or IM (instant message) friends they are physically with at the time
• They have on average 123 friends on their social network spaces
• And the first thing the majority of them do when they get home is turn on their PC

Yet despite living such a ‘connected’ life, kids these days still find technology a means to an end – primarily meeting up with their friends, watching television and listening to music. Above all, youth’s obsession with technology is around communication. The average person surveyed was doing 5 simultaneous actions whilst they watched television these days; and the majority of those actions involved communicating at some level. One young teenage girl admitted “I talk to my friend and MSN (instant message) her at the same time.” In fact, a full 34% of those asked said that they texted friends they were with at the time.

These activities seem to be making up for not spending as much physical time with their friends as they’d like – which seems to be most of the time. On the weekends, when typical young adults have the most free time, they are still spending more time hanging out with their mates and watching television than any other activity – the difference is that this generation tends to be engaging with their connected devices a lot more whilst doing those cherished activities.

Relationship with media

The TV is still young people’s most popular way to consume media, though in terms of time spent, TV time is pipped to the post by spending time on the internet. Here’s a summary of what kids say they want from their media:

• Total on-demand content
• Stuff I can talk about with their friends
• Stuff I can share with friends
• ‘New’ stuff I don’t want to have to work hard to find

There is a marked difference in how people consume content online and on a traditional television. Compared with watching television, wathcing online is almost always a solitary pursuit. And when we surveyed people’s entertainment levels when watching content online versus on TV, invariably, the experience of watching content on a television, often with others, trumped that of watching by oneself.  Indeed, kids tend to cite ‘not being able to watch a favourite programme the family telly’ one of the biggest reasons that they watch online. Some broadcaster websites are tackling this trend, and adding social components to their offerings to hook into youngsters natural desires to share what’s hot with their mates and talk about it seamlessly on every device. This trend, of course, will be interesting to monitor as the latest wave of ‘connected’ TVs become cheaper and more availabl.

Brands, TV and technology

But despite (or perhaps because of) an overwhelming choice of multichannel television and online content to consume these days, young adults still favour relatively few channels – with an average of just 5 cherished TV brands and 6 websites. 73% said that they always turned immediately to their favourite channel when they switched the TV on.

Just 4% of youngsters told us that they didn’t think about brands in general. This at a time when branding on ostensible items such as clothing is tailing off. But the split between kids’ impressions of brands on and offline is pretty dramatic. Brands matter most of all when kids are speaking to each other, or when viewed on television (70% agreed that having a brand appear on television increased its perceived quality), or when encountered in the real world, such as in shops. It’s not nearly as relevant online, with much fewer young kids associating with online-only brands such as Facebook.

But kids are clear about what endears them to brands: giving them free stuff, letting them see previews of content (even ads) before the masses, and letting them play with the brand’s content. That’s advice that’s as relevant to Nike as it is to Channel 4, and what we’ve been trying to achieve in the last year with more innovative ways to get behind the scenes of our programmes, engage with the programme’s content and take the programme with you.

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