Show Notes
Demand for high-quality kids' content has never been higher, but the supply has never been more broken. And YouTube, the most powerful kids' platform on Earth, is running it like an algorithm, not a network. This live panel episode of the Media Odyssey Podcast, recorded at the Media Universe Summit, features Evan Shapiro and Jamie Shapiro alongside Andy Donner, Head of Partnerships at Common Sense Media, and Sara DeWitt, Senior Vice President & General Manager at PBS Kids. The conversation centers on Evan and Common Sense Media's joint report on the state of the kids' content industry. The picture it paints is stark with millennial and Gen Z parents demanding more high-quality, trusted kids' content than ever, while streaming platforms have cut series orders by 25%, public media is being defunded, and YouTube Kids remains under-monetized and under-curated despite being the most-watched kids' platform in the world. The panel covers co-viewing trends, the collapse of the independent kids' production ecosystem, the rise of AI slop in children's content feeds, and what it would actually take for a major streamer or YouTube to step up and fill the gap. Key Takeaways: 1. Supply vs. Demand Demand for quality kids' content has doubled among parents (70% of whom are now millennials or Gen Z) while the number of series orders from streamers has dropped 25% from its 2022 peak. Streamers figured out kids' content reduces churn but doesn't drive new subscribers, and largely stopped commissioning it. Public broadcasters like PBS, BBC, and ABC Australia now produce 54% of kids' content worldwide. 2. The YouTube Kids Problem 88% of parents of kids under seven say their children prefer YouTube over any other platform, yet kids' content represents 15% of total YouTube usage and just 2% of its monetization. YouTube Kids has the lowest co-viewing rate of any major platform and AI-generated slop is regularly making it through content filters. The American Academy of Pediatrics warns YouTube is actively harming children's development. 3. The Algorithm Gap COPPA enforcement removed an estimated $2 billion from the kids' content marketplace, primarily from YouTube. Streamers that stopped commissioning original kids' content are now inadvertently driving young viewers to YouTube. PBS Kids saw 40% YouTube growth simply by launching content globally and allowing international ads, because global distribution signals demand to the algorithm and lifts domestic reach. 4. Co-Viewing Is Back and Underserved Co-viewing has surged since COVID, with the desire to watch content together as a family now ranking as the top thing parents say they don't want to lose from the pandemic period. Research shows kids learn significantly more when a parent or sibling is present. But fragmented subscriptions, too few family-friendly titles, and algorithm-driven autoplay leave a commercial gap for any platform willing to program for the whole family. 5. YouTube Needs to Run Kids Like a Network The panel's clearest call to action: YouTube should treat YouTube Kids as a curated network, not an algorithm. That means human curation, better revenue sharing for kids' content creators, global distribution partnerships, and taking its developmental responsibility seriously. YouTube would make more money doing it, and the goodwill from parents and educators would be commercially valuable in its own right. Thank you Andy Donner and Sara DeWitt for joining the pod! Andy Donner - https://www.linkedin.com/in/andydonner/ Sara DeWitt - https://www.linkedin.com/in/saradewitt/
Interested in sponsorship? https://forms.gle/2LCWfX2HBNT8mtpx8
Connect with us on Linkedin: Evan Shapiro - https://www.linkedin.com/in/eshap-media-cartographer/ Marion Ranchet - https://www.linkedin.com/in/marionranchet/ The Media Odyssey Podcast - https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-media-odyssey-podcast
(00:00) - Introduction to Kids' Content Landscape
(02:50) - The Supply and Demand Crisis in Kids' M
More from The Media Odyssey
Three years ago RTL Deutschland had no relationship with YouTube. Today, 200 old episodes of a 1996 action series are driving 123% more first video views and 26% more subscriptions on RTL+. This YouTube and RTL partnership case study shows how legacy TV can monetize its back catalog and grow streaming subscriptions.
Premium streaming lost 89% of the subscribers that signed up for new subscriptions last year, and the audience it’s chasing is watching video in the bedroom, on the bus, and on the toilet. Evan Shapiro’s keynote makes the case that media has to redefine broadcast and follow the whole consumer. In this keynote episode of the Media Odyssey Podcast, recorded on stage at Jupiter Festival in Miami, Evan Shapiro unveils the newest Media Universe map and the Creator Ecosphere map. He walks through cross-screen attention data from 23 regions, including why YouTube, TikTok, and vertical video are winning the phone-first audience, how the creator economy is shifting toward the affinity economy, and why the “cannibalization” fear is a myth, using World Cup viewership as proof. He also covers streaming retention, the rise of advertising over subscriptions, vertical premium television, employee-generated content, and how brands and media companies can win by thinking like creators in the user-centric era. Key Takeaways: 1. The User-Centric Era Is Here, and the Phone Is the Remote Control 81% of the world’s population is 54 or younger, and phones beat television sets for video time by more than two to one in the US and more than three to one in Brazil and Mexico. In the 23 regions surveyed, the bedroom was the top place to watch video, and 75% of the Indian Premier League cricket final was watched on phones. 2. YouTube Wins by Serving the Whole Consumer The new de-duplicated cross-screen attention index (index.eshap.tv) puts YouTube first in the US because it is the only platform on both television sets and phones, with a vertical product. Among under-55s TikTok ranks second, and among under-25s TikTok wins total attention in the US. 3. Premium Streaming Is Plateauing as Advertising Overtakes Subscriptions In the past year SVOD added 175 million subscribers and lost 156 million, a net retention of just 11%. PwC data shows advertising surpassing subscriptions in global revenue for the first time in a long time, which explains why premium streamers are rushing into ads. 4. The Cannibalization Myth Doesn’t Hold Up During the World Cup, CazéTV in Brazil hit 24 million concurrent YouTube streams for the final while 70 million people watched on broadcast at the same time. RTL in Germany reports a 26% increase in paid subscriptions and a 126% increase in sampling from audiences reached on YouTube, and BBC Studios’ Jasmine Dawson says that in every case studied, social distribution is additive. 5. Think Like a Creator Indie creators on the Affinity 100 list showed three to five times better engagement quality than mega creators. Heinz drove about $45 million in earned media and a 12% sales lift by mocking FIFA’s stadium branding rules, and Kit Kat’s stolen-truck posts reached 128 million people and $224 million in earned media. World of Wonder’s WOW Presents, built on its Drag Race fandom, reports 96% retention.
YouTube built the kids content economy, then broke its own monetization pipeline. Now it's time to fix kids content. This episode of the Media Odyssey Podcast features hosts Evan Shapiro and Marion Ranchet with kids media analyst Emily Horgan (The Kids Streamersphere), breaking down her latest Netflix Kids Content Performance Report. They dig into why Netflix isn't building new kids IP, YouTube's broken monetization pipeline for children's content, and how what's actually working for creators and franchises in a brutally competitive kids' content landscape can be the roadmap to fixing kids content.
An Anthropic engineer warned AI could destroy humanity, but Silicon Valley's sudden AI "safety" panic looks a lot like a marketing campaign.
Blair Imani just beat MrBeast on a brand-new ranking of creator influence and and the metric behind it could change how brands spend their money on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. This episode of The Media Odyssey Podcast, recorded outside at IBC, features hosts Evan Shapiro and Marion Ranchet with special guest Shira Lazar. They unpack the newly released Affinity 100, a ranking of the most impactful creators of 2026 built on a new metric called the Affinity Quotient, developed with Whalar Group and Foam. Key Takeaways: 1. A New Way to Measure Influence The Affinity Quotient weighs likes and comments, adds shares at double weight, and divides by views to measure engagement per view rather than engagement per post. It captures depth of impact rather than raw reach. 2. Blair Imani Tops the List, MrBeast Ranks 85th Educator and historian Blair Imani (fewer than 1 million total followers) ranked #1, while MrBeast, the world's biggest creator with half a billion followers, landed at 85. The list shows a shift from "creator economy" to the "affinity economy," where depth of engagement matters more than scale. 3. Indie and Expert Creators Are Rising The list highlights "indie creators" and niche experts (a finance guru, a film reviewer, a makeup artist turned inclusivity consultant) showing that creators with as few as 10,000-50,000 highly engaged fans can build sustainable, meaningful businesses. 4. Brands Still Chase Follower Counts Despite the Shift Even as the industry talks about quality over quantity, brand briefs still specify minimum follower counts (e.g., "250K-plus"). Shira Lazar argues B2B and knowledge creators are starting to shift that mindset, since the people following niche experts are often the ones making purchasing decisions. 5. The Creator Ecosphere Map Returns in October Evan Shapiro will unveil the second edition of the Creator Ecosphere Map on October 8th at the inaugural Jupiter Festival in Miami, sponsored by YouTube. The new version will rank roughly 800 creators using the Affinity Quotient across all major platforms, with all underlying data made publicly available for validation.