Today ABC iview and ABC Kids launch a new free app for iPad, ABC Kids iview.
Developed specifically for preschoolers and incorporating all the ABC Kids content that young children love and parents trust. The platformis intuitive, image led, designed for and tested by preschoolers.
ABC Head of Children’s Television, Deirdre Brennan, said: "We value the trust that Australian families place in us to educate and entertain their children and work hard to create an imaginative world where preschoolers can learn, play and explore across multiple platforms. We're thrilled to launch ABC Kids iview which offers the best of children’s content from Australia and the world, commercial free and in an environment parents and carers can control.”
ABC Head of TV Strategy and Digital Products Rebecca Heap said: “ABC iview is already a popular choice for children and parents. What’s unique about this is it has been designed specifically with parents and preschoolers in mind and they have been part of the development process from the outset. We know that young children and their parents are the most active users of tablet and mobile content and ABC Kids iview places them at the heart of the viewing experience.”
It will offer a superb library of content with everyone’s favourites including Play School, Giggle and Hoot, Bananas in Pyjamas, Peppa Pig, Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom, The Octonauts and much more.
Parent features are hidden safely in a Grown Ups section and offer parents the ability to control which programs their children can watch. It also offers parents the ability to provide feedback and recommendations for new app innovations. It is initially available on the App Store, with other platforms in development.
The ABC Kids brand has had a refresh. We are dropping the 4 from the TV channel brand to create a consistent and easily identifiable look that works equally well across both broadcast and digital content in this evolving era of television, as well as uniting our ABC Kids products under one logo featuring an updated version of the historic and much-loved apple, bee, carrot icons.
FACTS AND STATS: ONLINE CHILDREN AGED 2-5 YEARS
From Nielsen’s Australian E-Generation Report, Dec 2014.
Tablet use among Young Children
• Australian children and teens are using the internet at an increasingly young age. The convenience of user friendly devices like smartphones and tablets and the emergence of video on demand as an easy form of entertainment for young children are likely drivers of early adoption of online content.
• Young online children aged 2-5 years are more likely to have access to a tablet than older children.
• 45% of online Australians aged 2-5 years who use tablet devices to access the internet regularly use a tablet on their own, while 84% use a tablet with their parents or others.
Internet TV
• About half of online 2-5 year olds in Australia watch Internet TV.
• Younger children are most likely to use ABC services to watch online content with 63% of online Australians aged 2-5 using an ABC service (51% use ABC Kids websites and 26% use ABC iview).
• Younger children (2-5 years) are watching Internet TV more frequently than older children and are also more likely to view Internet TV on a TV screen or tablet compared to teens.
Based on a sample of 1,620 online Australians aged 2-15 years of age (and their parents). This study was first conducted in 2007 and is now in its 6th wave.