OPINION:
A friend of mine who has three children ranging in age from 9 to 13 casually mentioned to me that her family movie nights have become as stale as leftover popcorn.
While they, like many families in America, enjoy family movie nights as a low-cost, low-stress way to spend time together, it is getting harder and harder to find films or TV programs they can enjoy together that are not tainted by inappropriate content the children don’t need to be exposed to, or a cartoon they’ve already seen dozens of times.
New research reveals that the problem is not merely one of perception; the lack of family-suitable entertainment is real.
In a new report, “Families Need Not Subscribe: An Analysis of the Scarcity of Family Content on Streaming Platforms,” the Parents Television and Media Council found that across the major streaming services (Apple TV+, Hulu, Max, Netflix, Paramount+, Peacock and Amazon Prime Video), most of the original content on streaming platforms is rated for mature audiences, vastly overshadowing TV-G and TV-PG-rated programming. There are 541 MA-rated original series, but only are 87 TV- G-rated, and even fewer — 60 — are TV-G-rated.
There’s at least 268% more adults-only entertainment on streaming platforms than content that is suitable for families.
What’s a family to do? Their choices shouldn’t be between “Game of Thrones” and “Sesame Street” or “Sex Education” and “My Little Pony,” but that’s the reality they face.
Surveys indicate that families want to watch TV together, yet less than 20% report watching with children under the age of 18 — probably because there isn’t anything they can watch together. Unless things change, families will seek out niche, family-oriented streaming services rather than giving their money to media companies that have repeatedly demonstrated their lack of interest in programming for families.
Solving this problem will come with recognition by the entertainment industry that this is a problem. Fortunately, this shouldn’t be hard.
Many viewers have had their enjoyment of a program diminished by gratuitous sex, nudity or profanity. Programs like Netflix’s “The Crown” (rated TV-MA) could easily be made appropriate for family viewing with a few edits, so why include the mature content in the first place?
Generational shifts in media consumption are creating a more fragmented viewing audience, but there is substantial evidence that legacy media would benefit by producing content that encourages families to spend time together watching as a family. New research from TiVo shows a strong relationship between high engagement and lower churn. If more family-oriented content were offered, families would likely retain their streaming subscriptions longer.
Family-oriented content broadens a streaming service’s audience reach and can lead to a larger subscriber base and increased user engagement. Families are more likely to remain loyal subscribers, and streaming services can enhance their brand reputation and trustworthiness if their programming is perceived as safe and suitable for those households with children. And certainly, advertisers seek family-friendly platforms to advertise their products and services.
By primarily offering programming that is exclusively for adults, the streaming industry — already facing profitability challenges — is effectively alienating a reliable audience. Reversing this trend would help streamers tap into a broader market, build brand loyalty, and align with societal values while ensuring a sustainable and profitable future. We know it can be done.
Congress can also help by updating the Family Movie Act of 2005, which allows authorizing technology providers to engineer and bring to market DVD players that could be set to “skip past” explicit content contained in mainstream motion pictures to expand to and include streaming platforms. And the Federal Communications Commission should revisit and renew the promises Congress made to parents when it passed the Child Safe Viewing Act.
As it shifts back into production following the strike, we encourage the entertainment industry to make programming for families top of mind.
• Melissa Henson is vice president of the Parents Television and Media Council, a nonpartisan education organization advocating responsible entertainment. On X @ThePTC.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.