In February 2021, Ormax Media released its new report titled Ormax Brand Trust Survey 2021: Media brands that Indian kids trust the most. The research, conducted among urban Indian kids in 10 cities, puts out a ranking of 44 media brands, based on the trust these brands enjoy among Indian kids.

The Top 5 list has a story of its own to tell. Each of the Top 5 brands is a digital brand. While the presence of YouTube at the top position won't come as a surprise to many, the next four positions can cause a flutter or two. Ludo King, WhatsApp, Subway Surfers and Garena Free Fire take these positions. And that means that there is no traditional media brand in the Top 5!

Hungama at no. 6 and SAB TV at no. 7 mark the entry of television in the list. While TV brands have a good representation in the Top 20 list, their absence from the Top 5 is suggestive of an emerging trend, which indicates how kids are engaging more with digital brands than with traditional media. This preference is even more evident among boys and in the older kids (10-14 yrs.). In the latter, only one television brand features in the Top 10!

In the same research, we asked kids about their consumption of various media over the last one week. An astounding proportion (85%) of kids said they have played a mobile game in the last one week. The number is just a notch lower than television consumption, which is ubiquitous at 98%. Use of social media is fairly high at 51%, but the use of OTT apps (except YouTube) is low at just 25%.

One should not see these results to make the extreme conclusion that television is under threat. But the ascent of digital media among kids is a story to track very closely in the coming years.

You can download the full report here.

Watch the video below for key findings: