Kids play in fractured media playground

Mobile devices, Web video, online social networks, vidgames, DVRs and homevid options have disrupted audiences' small-screen habits and upended traditional ad models. Overall TV viewership has remained steady despite it all, but except for rare events (generally sports), the mass-audience virtual campfire has become a thousand points of light. In the kids-and-family racket, business has boomed of late, and yet the old label "fun for the whole family" is about as relevant as a G rating. Nielsen's long-established, overlapping age ranges -- 2 to 11 years old, 6 to 11 and 9 to 14 -- grow more archaic by the hour. Titles such as Disney's "High School Musical" and "Hannah Montana" or Nick's "iCarly" and "Naked Brothers Band" manage to pull in mass auds, but internally, a lot of kid-focused networks target sub-demos.