The study also asked children to nominate their favourite TV channel. A third of the kids interviewed (33%) said Channel 10 was their favourite channel, followed by the ABC with 18%. On the pay TV channels, Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network were equal with 15% and 14% respectively. However among kids with pay TV at home Nickelodeon was chosen as their favourite TV channel by 39% of these kids and Cartoon Network by 23%, channel 10 came in at 3rd place with 16% of kids in these pay TV households.

While the kids nominated over 70 different shows as their most favourite TV program only 4 were selected by more than 5% of the respondents as their Number 1 favourite TV show. The Simpsons was a clear hit with 27% selecting it as their favourite program. Yu-Gi-Oh, popular with the boys, rated at 10% overall (17% of boys). Two popular girls programs were the next most favourite, Saddle Club (8% overall, 16% among girls) and Home & Away (6% overall, 11% among girls).

Newspaper reading becomes increasingly important as children move through primary school. Reading progresses steadily with age, driven by having to read for school as well as by a developing interest in the world around them. Reading of newspapers really develops at about 9 years of age with approximately 60% of children reading either their parents' paper and/or reading for school. By the time they reach their teens, 4 out of 5 kids are at least sometimes reading a newspaper.

Once they reach high school, reading for homework drops considerably, back to 12% of kids. However children choosing to read their parents' newspaper compensates for this. By 13 years of age more than three-quarters of children sometimes read their parents' paper. Teenage boys are more likely to read than girls, particularly for the sports content.

The changing reading ability and interests of kids means that each of the kid's magazine titles needs to be very specific about its target audience, typically with an age range of about 3 years. For example, while 42% of kids rated K-Zone as a "cool" publication, 72% of boys aged 8-9 years rated it as "cool". Smash Hits was also cool (41%) but more so for girls than boys. Teenage girls were the most likely to rate Smash Hits as cool (71%).

The Internet is used by 60% of kids at school. 47% also use the Internet at home. Of those kids who use the Internet, usage is driven more by entertainment than utility. Asked to nominate the various ways they use the Internet, 83% said they look at websites for fun. A third send emails and a quarter chat to friends with messenger-style products. Just over half say they use the Internet for help with homework.

When asked to nominate their most favourite Internet site, the most nominated site was Yahoo/Yahoo games/Yahoo messenger with 6% of kids. Cartoonnetwork.com.au also ranked as favourite for 6% of kids, almost exclusively nominated by boys. Conversely ABC/ABC for kids/ABC playground was nominated by 5% of children but this time mainly by younger girls. Hotmail also had 5% of children nominate this as their favourite site particularly teenagers but equally by girls and boys.

How This Research Was Conducted

This topic was included in the ongoing Australian Kids Consumer Insights research program conducted by McNair Ingenuity Research in May 2003. The survey was conducted by means of a combination telephone interview and self-completion survey amongst 300 kids across Australia.

The above information is copyright to McNair Ingenuity Research and must be clearly acknowledged to McNair Ingenuity Research. For more information contact Matt Balogh ph 02 9966 9133.