Several generations of children in Czechia grew up on Mateřídouška and Ábíčko. People have remembered these brands by name for decades. A recognisable children's brand that audiences return to is exactly the asset that today's streaming charts of the most-watched content reward.
The top five kids' streaming shows for the first half of 2026 are led by Bluey, followed by SpongeBob, Gabby's Dollhouse, PAW Patrol and Ms. Rachel. Analyst Emily Horgan summarised the Nielsen figures. The first three have been on the chart for years, while PAW Patrol and Ms. Rachel joined in 2025.
The chart barely changes from year to year
According to Nielsen, Bluey was the most-watched title across all of streaming in 2025, for the second year running, with 45.2 billion minutes viewed. That performance rests on 154 episodes on Disney+, most of them shorter than ten minutes. In the first half of 2025 it dominated all domestic TV streaming with 25 billion minutes.
According to Horgan, all five titles hold their positions and are only slightly down on 2025. SpongeBob is even growing. Among children aged two to eleven it ranks third, and among adults aged 18 to 34 it ranks second. Horgan reads this as a sign of how a long-running animated comedy is becoming what is known as comfort TV for Gen Z.
Where Ms. Rachel and PAW Patrol came from
Ms. Rachel moved to streaming directly from YouTube. Her series debuted on Netflix on 27 January 2025, when her channel had more than 13 million subscribers, and the show came with subtitles in 33 languages. PAW Patrol expanded from Paramount+ to Netflix. According to Horgan, Netflix's high penetration in households helped both.
In her newsletter The Kids Streamersphere, Horgan frames this composition of the chart as a problem of new titles coming in. The catalogue holds, but the question, she says, is for how long. New names are not coming from the big studios but from outside. Ms. Rachel from YouTube, the film KPop Demon Hunters from Sony. By her figures, Ms. Rachel herself generates over a billion minutes viewed per episode, despite producing a fraction of the volume of the others. Moana in the same table fell 64%, from 11 billion minutes in the first half of 2025 to 4 billion.
Netflix is betting on this source of energy. After Ms. Rachel's success, it signed another YouTube creator, Mark Rober.
Name matters more than catalogue size
Bluey demonstrates this with a small catalogue and a huge number of minutes. SpongeBob holds its audience across generations. Ms. Rachel is a name that parents associated with trust before it ever reached Netflix. And the new names that complement this chart today mostly come from outside traditional studios.
Czech brands have the same memory
Mateřídouška is the oldest Czech children's magazine. The first issue came out on 19 December 1945, founded by František Hrubín, with the masthead illustrated by Josef Lada. Ábíčko, the ABC magazine, first came out on 22 January 1957. Both brands are now published by Czech News Center.
Ábíčko built its appeal for whole generations on a format that today's video is bringing back. Paper cut-outs of ships, cars and buildings are content made by hand, which is exactly the logic that DIY and craft channels rely on today on video platforms. The difference is that a paper model is a one-off supplement, whereas a DIY channel is a returning show with a steady audience. Around 2017 the magazine itself sold more than 23,000 copies per issue.
The nearest Czech approach to a franchise came with the children's Rádio Pigy, which Lagardère Active Česká republika launched around 2015 as a fairy-tale radio station for children who are not yet readers. The company built merchandise, e-commerce, books, a magazine and its own events around the mascot. In 2016 it announced franchised nurseries too, a pilot operation plus a licensed programme for private nurseries. Its e-commerce business almost doubled its turnover between 2014 and 2015. This is exactly the step from a single channel to an IP with several revenue streams that Ms. Rachel demonstrates on the American side as an individual.
The chart rewards brand memory and at the same time fresh names from outside the established players. Czech children's brands have built up that memory over decades. The creator who turns it into a regular video show is still to be found.
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