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It’s the challenge of multinational corporations such as Disney, Turner and Viacom to ensure that, despite their size, they remain flexible enough to keep up with the kids. Nico Franks reports.

There is always a danger that, no matter how big they are, established broadcasters could become irrelevant to audiences that are increasingly demanding access to content ‘whenever and wherever.’

As the largest providers of programming to the ‘plurals,’ the generation of kids born since the late 1990s, The Walt Disney Company, Nickelodeon parent Viacom and Cartoon Network owner Turner are at the coalface of these distribution changes.

The trouble is, despite the increasing prevalence of internet-connected TVs, your average living-room set is not fit for purpose for young audiences.

Media analyst Claire Enders pointed out last October that there had been a 22% fall in linear television viewing among 4-15s over the previous 18 months in the UK, with YouTube and the popularity of subscription VoD (SVoD) a major factor in this trend.

At a conference in London last year, meanwhile, execs from Google and Facebook debated whether linear TV channels would become obsolete in the future.

“There’s a section of the audience for whom scheduling is still important, but it’s not my kids and it’s not me,” said Google’s Matt Brittin, while Facebook’s Karla Geci suggested that scheduling would begin to be replaced by “smart recommendations.”

The established players remain resolute that their brands are still in demand in the same places they’ve always been. However, while they refuse to admit the writing is on the wall, they do concede that it might be being drafted.

“Traditional television is still certainly the most consumed media among children. But look, I’ll be honest with you,” says Jeff Grant, senior VP of research at Cartoon Network, “there’s definitely fragmentation there.”

Taking its cues from the popularity of shortform content, Cartoon Network has reacted to the changing landscape by investing in what it hopes kids would want the channel to look like on a small screen. This means “bite size” content, such as polls, shortform videos and interactive games, available via its Watch & Play app.

It’s taken the likes of Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon a few years to catch on to the app revolution.

“Last year Nickelodeon revealed that its app underwent four years of development,” points out Eduardo Henrique, co-founder of Latin American mobile service provider Movile.

“This is a far cry from the lean, iterative start-up model of Silicon Valley, where apps are often developed in months, and a major reason why these larger corporations are failing to keep up.

“These huge companies are saddled with layers of bureaucracy that inhibit their ability to move fast and adapt. Additionally, their traditional business models and distribution channels – partnerships with companies like Comcast, DirecTV and AT&T – impede them from going direct to consumers.”

Henrique, who also works on Movile’s SVoD app PlayKids, adds: “Even though mobile represents a major business opportunity, these companies are behind in terms of the technology, knowledge and speed needed to explore this new model.”

Cartoon Network unveiled its first original digital series during its upfront in New York in February, along with two new miniseries and renewals for Adventure Time and Regular Show.

The network declared itself “the leading choice for the mobile-first generation of plurals,” having published four of the number-one apps in the App Store and on Google Play last year.

“We are seeing great results with our platform-inclusive strategy to expand the definition of programming across all screens,” said Christina Miller, president and general manager of Cartoon Network, Boomerang and Adult Swim.

Technology aside, these firms must also ensure the programming itself remains relevant to the plurals, who, in the US, are on course to become the most ethnically diverse generation yet.

And, as Cartoon Network’s Grant points out, kids from the current generation are likely to be more open-minded than any before them.

“Obama’s election, the rise of the Hispanic demo in the US, same-sex marriage – all of this stuff comes into play when you consider that this will be a generation that looks at all this stuff and doesn’t think twice about it like previous generations did,” he says.

The diversity of cast members in Teen Titans is “one of the reasons why it’s one of our highest-performing shows,” Grant adds.

Any commissioner worth their salt needs to be conscious of these trends, and those who are will likely be rewarded when they take a look at the overnights – which, considering the increasing levels of viewing on-demand nowadays, are becoming something of a relic.