Fifty-seven percent kids prefer television, while only 10 percent receive their entertainment via OTT, according to a survey carried out by kids channel Sony YAY and Kantar Research, titled SearchLight’22 that decodes the lives and habits of Indian kids.

According to data put out by the Sony group channel, 33 percent of kids prefer to watch both television and OTT, while younger kids prefer television and older kids, having more access to OTT platforms, lean towards it.

It’s for the first time that such a study has been undertaken where the psychometric profiling presents crucial findings that highlight various trends across eight cities in the country, a press release from Sony YAY said.

Leena Lele Dutta, Business Head, Kids’ Genre of Sony Pictures Networks India, said, “As a brand practice, we constantly aim to follow an approach to “Explore” and understand our young audiences and their dynamic choices to deliver a wholesome experience across the platforms. With the release of Searchlight’2022, we are happy to present our learnings to the industry at large and assist in understanding this dynamic Target Group better”.

The research — tracing the journey from blackboards to keyboards, especially through the COVID-19 pandemic —- derives its findings between educational and personal development and also entertainment preferences. It offers an insightful deep dive into India’s young audiences aged between 7-14 years.

It also undertakes region-wise bifurcation of the data, considering India’s geographical and cultural diversities, to highlight the preferred activities of kids from region specific markets.

Sony YAY!’s first edition of SearchLight 2022, apart from trying to understand the parallel between the various platforms of entertainment, translates into the following findings with respect to TV and OTT viewing amongst kids:

• There exists a clear geographical divide in kids’ preference for OTT entertainment where only 81 percent of kids surveyed in south India preferred OTT as opposed to 56 percent of kids surveyed in eastern India.
• Kids favoured online classes over offline classes due to the rewatch option of online classes (29%), the comfort of home (28%), followed by the ability to attend classes they usually can’t physically (16%) and save time (15%).
• The top five activities participated by kids during the pandemic were tuition classes (76%), art & craft (24%), followed by sports (19%), dancing (18%) and singing (19%).
• The majority of respondents wished for lessons to be held online (63%) while the rest wanted to go back to the pre-pandemic style of offline teaching (37%).
• Edutech platforms, which rose to prominence during the lockdown saw that only 6 percent of respondents had edutech subscriptions, while 7 percent respondents had not subscribed but attended edutech classes.
• 39 percent had opted to use YouTube videos to learn concepts, while 48 percent were not aware of the existence of edutech platforms.
• With kids being limited to their homes owing to movement restrictions due to the pandemic, gaming became an essential part of kids’ entertainment. One out of two kids enjoyed gaming on their phone.
• Free games were core to their consumption.
• 53 percent preferred to play solo, while 44 percent were included in multiplayer games with friends and only 4 percent played multiplayer games with strangers.