“ADVERTS!” scream my three and five year old kids in annoyance every time they’re watching TV and an ad break interrupts their viewing.
My plaintive cries that those adverts help pay daddy’s wages get short shrift from these two junior ad-avoiders, who continue shouting merrily until the ads have been fast-forwarded and they can settle back into their programme.
“SOMETHING ON NETFLIX!” they shout, whenever I ask them what they want to watch on TV.
I try to explain that people watch programmes not channels these days, but they just stare at me blankly before settling into a 2 hour Horrid Henry marathon.
I tell them kids are supposed to have short attention spans these days, but I don’t think they’re listening.
Millennials may be digital natives, but the post-millennial generation are definitely Netflix natives.
My kids will never remember a time when they couldn’t access whatever they want to watch when they want to watch it, and view as many episodes as they like, completely ad-free.
Explaining the concept of the linear TV schedule will seem as alien and outdated to them as the idea of watching snooker in black-and-white or telephones having long wires connecting them to the wall.
Which is not to say that kids don’t love TV. One of the most interesting findings from Arqiva’s Connected Broadcasting research into Millennials’ viewing habits was that the big TV set in the lounge is still a dominant device for them.
But they regularly switch to watching video on mobiles or tablets partly because they’re rarely in sole charge of the remote control.
As the name Connected Broadcasting suggests, young people have a very broad definition of what constitutes TV.
Thinkbox data shows that less than half all 16-24 video viewing is live TV.
The times they are a-changin’, and broadcasters have to adapt to that change. So I believe the BBC should be applauded for its decision to switch BBC Three to an online-only service earlier this month.
It’s easy to take pot-shots at Auntie, many commercial media owners regularly do but the BBC is taking a bold step to completely reinvent its youth service around the needs and lifestyles of today’s young people.
Rather than being limited by a traditional linear TV channel, the new BBC Three will be fully interactive, will merge long- and short-form content, and will be available on all platforms and devices 24 hours a day.
This isn’t the story of a TV channel dying. It’s the story of a revolutionary new service for young people being born. Exactly the kind of service Netflix natives want and expect.
By Jon Kershaw, managing partner, strategy, Havas Media