Anyone who’s had a tablet or a smart phone around kids knows that most of them can’t wait to get them away from you and into their hands. But what may surprise you is that most family viewing still happens in front of the TV set, according to a study out this week from PlayScience on kids’ viewing habits. The study was commissioned by kids’ network The Hub, a joint venture between Discovery Communications and Hasbro, Inc.

The Hub study set up cameras in living rooms to see who was watching what on TV, and how they were watching (on TV, tablets, etc.). Focusing on families with kids 6-12 years of age, the study found that moms and dads control the remote differently, there is little gender difference in how families view content and kids are leading the way in tech.

First, it might be surprising that kids are the early adopters in TV technology. However, though they are watching 13% of TV content on smartphones or tablets, the majority of that viewing is comprised of short clips or cartoons. The rest is happening right there in the living room on the family’s main TV set.

Gender didn’t affect how kids watched content, but moms let their kids control the remote more than dads (who tended to change the channel to non-children’s programming). Family primetime also comes a bit earlier in households with young children, with most families watching TV together from 5:00 - 8:00 p.m. This tends to be movies or cartoons, with 25% of family viewing movies and 16% cartoons.

When asked after the study, parents said they chose programming that would encourage family discussions. This could be movies to watch together, but also nostalgic shows that parents could share with the family, or family-oriented sitcoms like “Modern Family.”

Brief Take: While the conventional wisdom is that kids’ viewing is all moving online, there are still families, parents and kids to reach via traditional television.

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