Study Finds Netflix Saves Children From Up To 400 Hours of Commercials a Year

There’s no doubt that one of the key benefits of Netflix is not having to suffer through 15 minutes of commercials every hour.

But a new study by childcare company LocalBabysitter has found that while Netflix certainly saves us all from tons of ads, the streaming giant saves children from up to 400 hours of commercials a year.

We couldn’t believe the numbers when we read them, so we checked the study cited from the University of Michigan and saw that the average kid 2-11 years old is watching somewhere between 28-32 hours of television a week. With that, if the child is in a Netflix-only home, they are being spared from approximately 400 hours of commercials for toys, candy, and other things that rot their poor, poor brains.

The study does go on to point out that while Netflix-only homes might be prevent ads from the big screen, there’s no doubt that YouTube has taken the baton of making sure kids see the latest and greatest in kid-focused products.

And one could probably argue that Netflix does have indirect advertising through the cartoons they’re showing, creating licencing deals for children’s’ toys of popular show characters and other monetization of the content.

Regardless, it’s still impressive to think of all the time being saved by today’s youth.

Maybe it will be a common statement for us 90s kids to say things like, “Back in my day, I couldn’t watch Saturday morning cartoons without being shown over an hour of ads!” all while our grandchildren roll their eyes and keep paying Fortnight 3 or whatever.