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IF THERE’S A NEW movement for the big TV and video players, it’s children.
In the past year, the likes of Netflix and YouTube have doubled down on their offering for kids, releasing both popular and native shows created for kids.
There’s a good reason why such an approach is growing. For the most part, the new generation doesn’t know a world without internet, touchscreens or streaming, and they watch a lot of TV and video on demand. In short, it’s a very lucrative market.
Now you can add Sky to the mix, after it launched its own tablet app Sky Kids on iOS and Android. Since it’s designed for kids to use by themselves, the app is pretty straightforward and bears many similarities to other offerings like YouTube Kids.
Designed by UsTwo, the studio behind the hit mobile game Monument Valley, you let your child choose a character – who appears everywhere and as the timer icon when you’re watching a show – and choose the station and show you want to watch.
It’s describing it as a way for parents to have some peace in their day, knowing their kids aren’t watching anything inappropriate.
So far, so standard, but the most interesting part is something that will be introduced later this year: the sleep timer. While that in itself isn’t unusual, it’s the approach that might interest parents.
Ten minutes before the time is up, the character will get start yawning. When it does, it will say it can’t continue streaming any longer and stop. The idea is it will prepare kids for their show to end and according to Sky, it takes away the stress from parents who have to tear their kids away from a TV or tablet.
“It’s just a little indication because children don’t really deal with hard stops very well,” explained Lucy Murphy, its head of kids content.
“They like a gradual transition so it was our way of making that process gentler. You get that 10-minute warning when you see your buddy yawning… you know the writing’s on the wall”.
That visual cue ties in with how the app is designed. Visuals are large, text is kept to a minimum and navigation is kept to a minimum. Kids get their own personalised feed but can dip into specific channels like Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon.
“We tested everything, we really have,” said Murphy. “We didn’t make it and test it because if you do that, you end up going back and redoing things so every two weeks for a year we’ve been sitting down… [and talking to] parents and kids”.
While it may appeal to those who already have Sky subscriptions, it faces a tougher battle against the likes of YouTube and Netflix who are fighting for the same market.
So what if its a different time in the UK. We do enty of business with countries in different timezones. Some countries even have different timezones with in the one country so again it makes no difference if we’re on a different time to NI. I’d personally prefer to stay on summer time all year but Im not that pushed. Just as long as we get rid of changing the clocks.
Scrap it outdated and doesn’t serve a purpose anymore.
Continue with changing the clocks.
Anyone with toddlers will know, it’s an absolute nightmare trying to adjust their sleeping patterns after the time change. Also it’s preferable to have more daylight in the evening available to school kids. Not to mention the fact that roads would be safer because volumes of traffic increase towards evening.
@Paraic: I disagree. However, if we stay on summertime then when winter rolls around it won’t get bright until close to 10am which means kids walking to school in the dark. If this has to change then remaining on wintertime is the only option so it’s not dark when the kids are going to school and coming home from school.
@Ian Breathnach: kids already go to school on the dark as the hour time difference means it gets bright close to 9. Unless you live next door to the school your kids go to school in the dark in winter.
@Dave O Keeffe: The vast majority of kids live within 10 to 15 minutes of their school. It’s bright by 8.50am in the depths or the winter.
What time is it?
It’s about time
Stop. Hammer time…
This was tried before and people had a problem that it was dark at 9am when children were heading off to school.
@Aine O Connor: how did people manage 100 years ago when the time was changed and lighting wasn’t as good?
@Aine O Connor: indeed it was. It happened in 1969. It was changed back in 1970 for the very reasons you stated.
Groundhog day, we keep revisiting this time when socialists with fanciful ideas thinks a keynote speech awaiting by the world and worthy of flying his royal bum in a learjet to go 100 miles up the road.
Wish there was an ‘I’d like us to consider moving to Central European Summer Time’ box?
If we stay on winter time we will still get bright evenings but we wont have really dark mornings. Its hard enough to get out of bed and don’t think its safe to bring kids to school in the dark.
I look forward to the time change after Christmas. Can we change the time before the end of March, like in February or something and make a shorter winter?
Stay on summertime please, we know if the morning is dark it will get brighter but once it’s dark in the evening that’s it!! Most children are driven to school anyway and in urban areas they have street lights. We’ll manage just fine if UK is on different time zone to us, most of Europe is and we do business with them!!
@Teresa Birney Codd: finally someone talking sense
@Teresa Birney Codd: finally someone talking sense!!!
It’s cheeko time ….
What’s time to a goat ?
All those almanacs being printed right now…
It seems the problem is simply the change. Statistics of heart attacks make a clear jump upward the few days every year after changing to summertime when we suddenly have to awake and get up an hour earlier.
Some would claim that it evens itself out in the autumn when we are allowed to sleep an hour more, as the same heart attack statistics show less heart attacks that and following few mornings. For the ones that are killed by the time change in the spring it was tough luck as nobody told them and for the saved in the autumn just pure luck.
The take awayis that if we sleep too few hours not only can we become grumpy but also suddenly die from it.
Moreover both Thatcher and Ron Reagan bragged that 4 hours sleep was enough. Both ended their days without knowing what was going on, in Alzheimer’s. Now shown to be aggravated by too few hours of sleep.
have your say