“Attention is not a business model.”
Emily Horgan, Independent Kids Media Consultant, EHorg Media
This week Evan Shapiro and I finally get Emily Horgan on the pod. A former Disney EMEA exec, she publishes the Netflix Kids Content Performance Report twice a year, writes The Kids StreamerSphere and co-hosts the Kids Media Club podcast. Her latest edition of the Performance Report is why we called.
Ms. Rachel built her audience on YouTube and her show was the seventh most-watched on Netflix in the first half of 2025, on four episodes. Where does the next Ms. Rachel come from though? YouTube, where she built her audience, agreed to pay $170 million in 2019 to settle FTC and New York allegations over children’s data and since then the monetisation of kids content there has collapsed.
Netflix’s own kids chart raises the same question. On Emily’s H1 2026 chart, seven shows clear 200 million hours viewed and she points to two in the top 10 that started life on Netflix, Gabby’s Dollhouse and The Creature Cases.
Newer names such as Sheriff Labrador and ChuChu TV arrive from YouTube and apps. We wanted to know why Netflix licenses rather than builds and what Emily would ask of YouTube.
We also get into the Nickelodeon live-action series still pulling viewers on Netflix, Toonstar’s mix of human and AI animation, how Sesame Street windows between Netflix and YouTube and the research Emily is finishing on why parents subscribe. She and Evan are both on stage at MIPJunior in Cannes this weekend, go check them out live.
Emily first floated the idea for these reports to me over a coffee in Cannes, with an "is this crazy?" attached. Definitely not crazy. The latest edition runs to 35 pages, it’s both insightful and actionable for kids operators. If you want it, email Emily at emily@ehorgmedia.com.
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That’s it for today but before you go: