Report: Screentime is Essential for Family Bonding

A new WildBrain report commissioned from Savanta has found that 85 percent of parents say enjoying video content with their children is a key family bonding experience, third only to eating together and traveling.

Of the U.S. families surveyed for The Connected Family: Screentime is Bonding Time report, three-quarters of parents report watching content together with their children on YouTube, AVOD and FAST platforms. Additionally, almost 50 percent of parents said they enjoyed gaming with their kids, and 84 percent enjoyed engaging together with familiar characters that crossover between gaming and video content.

Family viewing is especially important to younger parents, the majority of whom watch content with their kids at least once a day. 71 percent of Gen Z parents and 61 percent of Millennial parents report co-viewing on a daily basis, while only 49 percent of Gen X report watching content with their kids at least once a day.

YouTube continues to be the top destination for families’ shared screentime, followed by Prime Video, Netflix standard, Hulu, Disney+ standard, Disney+ with ads, Paramount+, Netflix with ads, Roku, YouTube Premium and Apple TV+. YouTube is twice as popular as the next closest AVOD.

Regarding gaming, the survey found that Roblox is the top choice for families. 49 percent of parents report playing Roblox with their children, while 46 percent report engaging with Minecraft together, and 46 percent report playing Fortnite with their kids.

Children are finding these gaming recommendations on YouTube the most, with 85 percent reporting YouTube as their most trusted source, followed by friends and family at 70 percent.

On where they like to engage with their favorite characters, 73 percent of children say they prefer watching them on YouTube/YouTube Kids, followed by watching them on TV/streaming platforms, playing as them or with them in video games, watching them on TikTok, interacting with them on other social media accounts and going on their website.

The report indicates that brands looking to engage with parents and kids should adopt cross-platform integration strategies. 84 percent of parents express interest in interacting with characters from content they watched with their children in new formats. A cross-platform strategy can open up the opportunity for more ads, and over seven in ten parents have already made purchases based on ads they have seen alongside their child when watching video content or gaming, and over three-quarters of children have bought or asked their parent to buy them toys or games after seeing brands on gaming platforms.

Emma Witkowski, VP of media solutions at WildBrain, said: “Building off our research from last year, it’s striking to see in our new research just how important content-viewing and gaming time have become to families. Screentime isn’t just for babysitting anymore—it has become an important bonding experience, and parents are just as engaged in what’s on the screen as their kids, presenting a unique opportunity for brands to engage audiences and generate interest.

“Nostalgia as a key decision-driver for parents speaks directly to WildBrain’s core capabilities. Our expansive presence across platforms offers COPPA- and CARU-compliant opportunities to reach parents and engage families. Through our world-leading YouTube network and our capacity as a dominant player in the kids’ and family FAST space, we position brands alongside broadcast-quality, premium content featuring well-known properties, such as Teletubbies, Strawberry Shortcake and many more. Additionally, we offer advanced capabilities in brand integrations on leading gaming platforms.

“Today’s families are bonding over content and games, generating conversations and fandom that build enthusiasm to engage with brands off-screen through products and experiences. Our media solutions team at WildBrain is the ideal partner to help brand owners develop and implement effective cross-platform integration strategies to leverage these trends and engage families where they spend time together.”