Family friendly YouTube content: the biggest opportunity for TV producers in the creator market

Is there a gap for TV producers who instinctively understand how to make family friendly content that appeals to a wide age range?

For decades, TV shows that the whole family can watch together have been a staple of TV schedules. This can range from primetime Saturday night shiny floor extravaganzas through to smaller fact ent formats, gameshows, plus of course scripted comedy or drama: Britain’s Got Talent, Modern Family, The Great British BakeOff, Blind Date, Masterchef, Young Sheldon, Take Me Out, Strictly and Gladiators.

Many countries have some sort of rule that means parents can be confident that anything broadcast before a specific time (in the UK, it is the 9pm watershed) will be appropriate for their kids. And that TV shows especially in the 6pm to 9pm slot will be designed to be appealing to everyone, not just children.

While shows like Masterchef are mainstays of TV schedules and remain hugely popular, the explosion of YouTube - especially amongst kids - has made life very tricky for parents to navigate, especially if they want to find content to watch as a family that is a) safe for their kids and b) something the older teens and adults will enjoy too.

When you do a little digging on kids and family YouTube creators, there are three interesting trends to consider:

1. The vast majority of the successful creator channels for kids are for the younger preschool demographic (which is not the focus of this post)

2. There are relatively few channels that create family friendly content for primary school aged kids aged 8 to 12 that also appeals to teenagers and adults

3. Of these channels that do target the 8+ kids and family audience, very few are producing content that can compete with the TV or streamer shows listed above.

Normally, this would suggest that there isn’t the market demand for these types of channels. However, of the creators who fit the category of age appropriate for the 8+ demographic, well, they happen to be some of the biggest channels out there.

Indeed, it is possible that a significant part of the success of these creators over the past decade is because parents have trusted them more than other superficially similar creators?

Read on to find out why the family friendly content is such a tricky space online, which creators have successfully managed to capture family audiences, what sweet spot channels need to hit to succeed with a family demographic and how TV producers can go about getting into this space. Plus how it isn’t just YouTube that is crying out for family friendly content - podcasts are a big growth area too.