New York, NY July 15, 2026 – The Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM) today announced the launch of a new cross-industry Kids & Family Media Measurement Taskforce, alongside the release of a major new report, When Metrics Fall Short: The Case for Children’s Media Measurement, highlighting the growing disconnect between how children consume media and how the industry measures audience engagement.

To support the report’s recommendations, the newly launched Taskforce unites stakeholders across media, advertising, platforms, and measurement to develop integrated measurement frameworks that combine panels, big data, and platform insights; create kids’ media metrics reflecting co-viewing, repeat viewing, and developmental factors; and explore synthetic datasets and AI-assisted modeling to address measurement gaps while preserving privacy. The Taskforce includes a diverse cross-section of the children’s media industry, including A Parent Media Co., Cricket Media, Moonbug, Paramount, Precisify, Truthset, TVision, Wantent, Warner Bros. Discovery, and WildBrain, leading measurement vendors, online video platforms, agencies and marketers. Membership is open to the entire industry.

“The children’s media landscape has fundamentally changed over the past decade, but the systems used to measure audiences have not kept pace,” said Jon Watts, Managing Director, CIMM. “Without reliable, privacy-compliant measurement solutions, the industry risks losing visibility into where and how children engage with content across platforms. That lack of visibility doesn’t just weaken confidence in investment decisions – it can distort advertising strategies, limit innovation, and make it harder to sustain high-quality children’s programming. This report is not advocating for expanded behavioral tracking of children, but rather for clearer guidance and responsible measurement approaches that support household-level and co-viewing insights while respecting critical privacy protections.”

The Catalyst: Key Measurement Challenges

The report demonstrates that while children’s media consumption has rapidly shifted toward fragmented digital ecosystems – including streaming platforms, gaming environments, and social video – the industry’s measurement infrastructure has failed to evolve at the same pace. The result is a widening measurement gap that threatens investment, innovation, and long-term sustainability across the children’s media ecosystem.

Key challenges identified include:

• Traditional panel-based measurement systems struggle to maintain statistical reliability as children’s viewing fragments across platforms, devices, and age cohorts.
• Big datasets such as Smart TV ACR and set-top box data offer scale, but often fail to accurately identify child viewers or capture co-viewing behaviors with parents.
• Most video platforms provide limited visibility into children’s viewing, creating significant gaps in cross-platform measurement.
• Gaming now represents a major share of children’s media consumption, yet remains largely unmeasured within current audience measurement frameworks.
• Existing ad tech incentives often prioritize scale and reach over accuracy, contributing to significant data quality issues across the media ecosystem.

From Insight to Action: Report Origins & Taskforce Direction

Led by independent media consultant and former Disney executive Emily Horgan, and developed in collaboration with leading studios, streaming platforms, measurement providers, digital media companies, and policy experts, the report draws on interviews with more than 30 industry stakeholders and insights from a CIMM-hosted executive roundtable to examine the commercial, cultural, and regulatory implications of inadequate audience measurement for children’s content.

The report calls for a coordinated industry response to improve children’s media measurement while preserving critical privacy protections, including the development of privacy-compliant cross-platform measurement frameworks, stronger collaboration between platforms, publishers, advertisers, agencies, and measurement providers, and exploration of new approaches such as common integrated measurement solutions, program-level data sharing, bespoke kids’ media measurement frameworks, and AI-driven synthetic datasets designed to address gaps in audience visibility while protecting children’s privacy.

The Taskforce will also take full and proper account of established best practice guidance relating to responsible marketing to children. As part of its work, the Taskforce will develop and maintain a summary of relevant best practices, current expert guidance, and applicable rules and regulations, including guidance on privacy, transparency, age-appropriate advertising, data use, and the clear separation of commercial content from entertainment. CIMM will ensure these materials are communicated to Taskforce members and shared with the wider industry to support responsible, privacy-compliant, and child-centered approaches to children’s media measurement and marketing.

Industry Partner Perspectives

“For too long, kids and family media have been treated as a niche, even as family content continues to play an outsized role in household viewing and engagement,” said Dan’l Hewitt, Global Head of Brand Partnerships at Moonbug Entertainment. “There is a clear gap between how families actually consume media and how the industry measures and values that behavior. Joining CIMM’s Taskforce reflects our commitment to helping build privacy-first measurement frameworks that better capture the scale, influence, and commercial value of kids and family audiences in today’s streaming environment.” 

“We are delighted to join CIMM’s new taskforce at such a pivotal moment for the industry,” said Christian Dankl, Co-CEO and Co-Founder at Precisify. “There is currently a significant disconnect between how Gen Alpha actually consumes online media and how the industry measures the audience size. We look forward to helping the industry measure young audiences with our COPPA compliant privacy first measurement solution in Precisify Measurement.” 

“At APMC, we built Kidoodle.TV kids-first from the foundation, and the families we serve in more than 160 countries have made one thing clear: they are asking for better, and they deserve it,” said Brenda Bisner, Chief Content Officer, Kidoodle.TV (A Parent Media Co.). “Better measurement is how the whole industry rises to meet that demand. When we can finally see how families watch together, value co-viewing, and understand what safe, high-quality content does for kids, we unlock investment in exactly the programming children deserve. We’re proud to participate in CIMM’s Taskforce because this isn’t simply about closing a measurement gap, it’s about building a healthier future for children’s media, together.” 

“As media consumption continues to evolve, it’s important that measurement approaches evolve as well,” said Greg Iocco, VP, Audience Measurement, Warner Bros. Discovery. “We look forward to joining CIMM’s Taskforce and working with industry peers to help develop frameworks that provide strong privacy protections while simultaneously providing a more accurate assessment of media usage within the kids and family audience.”

“The made-for-kids market is at a pivotal moment,” said Emma Witkowski, VP, Media Solutions at Wildbrain. “As Gen Alpha becomes increasingly influential in the household, co-viewing remains a powerful but under-valued opportunity for brands to engage both kids and parents together. This taskforce is focused on helping brands connect in ways that are both effective and responsibly compliant, while supporting the continued strength of premium kids’ content.”

To download the full paper, visit https://cimm-us.org/research/ or to join the Taskforce, contact info@cimm-us.org. 

About CIMM

The Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM) is a non-partisan, pan-industry association of companies from across the media and advertising ecosystem, focused on cultivating and supporting improvements, innovations and best practices in measurement and currency development, the use and application of new metrics, and data collaboration. CIMM’s role is to convene stakeholders, illuminate emerging issues, and help the marketplace make informed decisions. CIMM embraces the entire media and advertising ecosystem and prioritizes effective collaboration to deliver meaningful change.