As one of the leading kids’ entertainment companies, Jetix Europe has been focusing on delving deeper into kids’ habits and views in Europe.

In November 2006, Jetix launched an online tracking study called Kidometer which aims to provide comprehensive and insightful details on kids’ media consumption, in addition to identifying current and upcoming trends. The research covers 500 kids per country across 10 European markets.

Among the highlights of Kidometer, kids’ gaming habits and general trends within the kids’ gaming market clearly stand out.

Kids’ gaming is becoming an increasingly more important revenue and product stream for most gaming companies. With a registered member database across Europe of over 500,000 kids, Jetix is able to provide very useful insight into kids’ habits. The findings of Kidometer provide advertisers with a clear picture of what is popular in kids gaming without having to employ expensive research companies.

In addition to Kidometer, Jetix conducted a gaming research study across six territories last September. The results indicated that:
* Kids play a games console on average 3.9 times per week, with kids from the UK and Spain being higher than average;
* 35 per cent of respondents claimed that a member of their household was planning to get a new console in the next six months;
* 50 per cent of consoles would be bought as Christmas presents;
* Over a third of UK kids consider themselves to be the main decision-maker when it comes to buying a console;
* The PS2 is the most popular platform with just under 50 per cent ownership.

There are other areas of interest that we look into. In a study we conducted in 2005, 84 per cent of kids identified TV as the top medium for seeing their favourite ads, followed by the internet. In 2006, TV was up at 86 per cent with the Internet stable at 32 per cent. The second wave of Jetix Europe’s Kidometer will be available soon.