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Entertainment -- No child's play
娛樂——并非兒戲
Streaming giants get more serious about children's shows
流媒體巨頭們更加認真地對待對兒童節目
The pandemic has been tough for parents of young children.
這場疫情對家中有小孩的父母來說一直很艱難。
With schools shut, many had to keep an eye on their offspring while juggling chores and remote work.
由于學校停課，許多家長不得不一邊照看孩子，一邊忙著做家務和遠程工作。
Succour came courtesy of Hollywood.
好萊塢伸出援手。
A study by Parrot Analytics, a data firm, found that demand for children's shows in America -- measured by video views, social-media mentions, searches on IMDB, a platform for film buffs, and the like -- grew by nearly 60% from the start of 2020, before Covid-19 hit, to last September.
數據公司Parrot Analytics的一項研究發現，從2020年初（新冠疫情爆發前）到去年9月，美國對兒童節目的需求——通過視頻瀏覽量、社交媒體提及量、電影愛好者平臺IMDB上的搜索量等來判斷——增長了近60%。
Demand for other genres rose by 23% in that period.
而在此期間，美國對其他類型節目的需求增長了23%。
At the same time, parental concerns about their progeny's media diets have grown.
與此同時，父母對子女的媒體攝入狀況越來越擔心。
A recent Pew survey found nearly half of parents saying that YouTube, the most popular destination for young audiences, exposed their children to inappropriate content.
皮尤最近的一項調查發現，近一半的父母表示，年輕受眾最喜歡的網站油管讓他們的孩子接觸到了不適宜的內容。
Many are chary of social-media apps such as TikTok, one-third of whose users may be under the age of 14, according to internal data seen by the New York Times.
《紐約時報》了解到的內部數據顯示，許多父母對抖音等社交媒體應用持謹慎態度，抖音有三分之一的用戶年齡可能在14歲以下。
Fortunately, help is at hand.
幸運的是，救星即將到來。
Disney, arguably the child-friendliest brand of all, has created a new role tasked with seeking out external children's programming -- part of a reorganisation to separate content creation from merchandising.
迪士尼可以說是所有品牌中最適合兒童的，它設立了一個新的職位，負責尋找外部兒童節目——這是重組計劃的一部分，目的是將內容創作與商品銷售分離開來。
Paramount+ is promoting its Nickelodeon trove to parents.
派拉蒙+正在向家長們推廣它的Nickelodeon寶庫。
Its own parent, Viacom CBS, is reportedly in talks to buy the "Alvin and the Chipmunks" franchise from its creators for as much as $300m.
據報道，它的母公司維亞康姆哥倫比亞廣播公司正在進行洽談，打算以高達3億美元的價格從《阿爾文與花栗鼠》的創作者手中買下該作品的特許經營權。
In September Netflix paid more than $700m for the Roald Dahl Story Company, which owns the rights to the eponymous author's beloved tales such as "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory".
9月，網飛斥資7億多美元收購了羅爾德·達爾故事公司，該公司擁有羅爾德·達爾一些深受喜愛的童話故事的版權，比如《查理和巧克力工廠》。
In November it announced the launch of Kids Clips, which offers curated short videos from its expanding slate of children's programmes.
11月，該公司宣布推出“兒童精選短片”，提供從其不斷擴大的兒童節目表中精選出來的短片。
Last autumn HBO Max, best-known for edgy grown-up fare, launched Cartoonito, a portal dedicated to pre-school shows.
去年秋天，以前衛的成人節目而聞名的HBO Max推出了“卡通頻道”，這是一個專注于學齡前兒童節目的門戶網站。
Upstarts are getting in on the action, too.
后起之秀也加入其中。
Kidoodle. tv, an ad-supported app that specialises in children's shows, has seen its downloads balloon during the pandemic.
Kidoodle. tv是一款由廣告支撐的專門提供兒童節目的應用，疫情期間該應用的下載量激增。
In November two former Disney executives agreed to pay $3bn for Moonbug Entertainment, the company behind hit programmes like "Cocomelon" and "Blippi".
11月，兩名迪士尼前高管同意斥資30億美元收購Moonbug娛樂公司，該公司制作出了《Cocomelon》和《Blippi》等熱門節目。
Youth programming is attractive to streaming services for several reasons.
青少年節目之所以吸引著流媒體服務平臺有多個原因。
Children's television shows, especially animated ones, often cost less to produce than entertainment for adults, observes Erin Meyers of Oakland University.
奧克蘭大學的艾琳·邁爾斯觀察到，兒童電視節目，特別是動畫節目，制作成本往往低于成人娛樂節目。
They tend to have a longer shelf life, too, since young children are less fussy than older viewers about what is hip at any given moment.
它們往往也擁有更長的保質期，因為小孩子在任何時候都不會像年齡大些的觀眾那樣挑剔什么是時髦的。
And children's programming offers vast merchandising opportunities in the form of toys.
通過玩具的形式，兒童節目還提供了巨大的商品銷售機會。
Most important, if you get it right you may be rewarded twice over: with current custom from grateful parents and, if their offspring like what they see, a guaranteed stream of future viewers.
最重要的是，如果你做好了，你可能會得到雙倍的回報：現在有來自心懷感恩的父母的光顧，如果這些父母的孩子喜歡他們看到的東西，那么未來的觀眾流也有了保障。
譯文由可可原創，僅供學習交流使用，未經許可請勿轉載。
