Mikey Casalaina and D Alcausin are driving a new model for kids’ streaming apps with Meevee, which launches April 25, skipping the infinite loop of many digital platforms today in favor of curated, intentional viewing, they tell ScreenMDM.
Headquartered in Amsterdam, Meevee aims to be an alternative to autoplays, infinite feeds, and algorithmic engagement. Its launch comes at a time of increased conversation about how much time young ones—Meevee is geared toward kids aged 2 to 6—should spend with screen entertainment. Viewing is intended to have clear beginnings and endings, with a limited, “thoughtfully curated” slate that fosters the development of healthy viewing habits, its founders tell ScreenMDM Talks in the latest episode of our Gen A to Z strand.
“The current media landscape has optimized itself for repeat viewing,” Casalaina says in the podcast, which you can view on YouTube below or on Spotify here.
“It ends up becoming these two sides: anti-screen, or you end up down this rabbit hole where it’s grids and smiling faces and thumbnails. It doesn’t have to be one or the other, but it’s a problem of the way these systems have evolved.”
Meevee is intended to tackle that problem head-on, emerging partly out of Casalaina’s own frustrations with screen content for his young kids during the pandemic. Ultimately, he, like many parents, found himself in a “tablet tug of war where you’re trying to say, screen time is over, and becoming the bad cop. And then, as a parent, you blame yourself. It’s not the parents, it’s the systems.”
“The major platforms for kids today are all optimized for continuous watching, and all the incentives are based on that,” Alcausin adds. “That was the light bulb moment—realizing that the TV we used to watch as kids wasn’t about endless watching. After my cartoons, my mum would watch the news. That has disappeared, so we thought, Why don’t we try and bring that back?”
For Meevee, success will not be determined by minutes watched, a metric that has become the default for success across the media ecosystem, including with the youngest audiences.
“We think the better metric to measure is trust from parents and completion of the sessions that we’re building,” Alcausin says. “Intentional session times and seeing that kids are holding attention, and then transitioning off the screen gently and without friction.”
Part of that process includes direct feedback from parents, Casalaina adds. “In our onboarding flow, as you’re getting into the app, there’s a point where we are going to ask parents, How much screen time are you averaging per day? What kinds of things frustrate you? And then later on, we’re asking parents the same set of questions. So for us, seeing that needle move toward less screen time, healthier screen time habits, better digital habits for parents and kids, is our North Star.”
The app is deeply informed by research into kids’ media habits, working with the team at Tilburg University in the Netherlands.
“Not all screens are made equal,” Alcausin explains. “What is available now on larger platforms is the kind of content that can be quite overstimulating and has developed in such a way that it’s meant to capture a kid’s attention in the first three to 15 seconds, and then two- to three-second cuts happening in between. Young kids haven’t developed their brains enough to comprehend that level of stimulation. As we were building out Meevee and the way that we’re selecting the content for the platform, we’re thinking about that and making sure that the stories we share are more appropriate in terms of pacing, gentle storytelling, and a rhythm that young kids can feel better about.”
The platform operates on a subscription model, but Alcausin prefers to describe it more as a membership, as it fosters a community of caregivers invested in healthy screen habits for children. “We’re asking families to contribute, and every contribution will go towards a creative fund that we’re developing that we can then use to commission new independent creators in the kids’ media space,” she says. “We recognize that that’s also disappearing in this landscape that we’re in today. So many great studios and creators are losing funding, losing conferences, and losing access to buyers. This is something we want to be able to contribute positively back into the industry.”
Meanwhile, licensing deals are “straightforward,” she continues, with the service set to have close to 100 hours available at launch as part of its limited, curated lineup. When looking for content, pacing is key, with Alcausin and Casalaina drawing on their creative sensibilities from their work at WeTransfer to help refine the offering.
“We helped develop the backgrounds” at WeTransfer, Alcausin says. “When we partnered with brands, we had strict creative guidelines, which included things like the speed of cuts in videos and pacing. So, a lot of the learnings we had from our prior roles about how to keep that space calm and gentle for creatives, we’ve taken over to Meevee, essentially. Not too many rapid cuts, thinking about the pacing of the music, thinking about the storytelling first.”
Content is in English along with a sizable Spanish-language lineup and a handful of other languages, Casalaina says. The platform’s mascot, Mookee the monkey, can communicate with audiences in English, Spanish, and Dutch.
Building toward its launch later this week, “We’re trying to join the conversation,” Casalaina adds, including with the YouTube series Raising Questions, featuring expert insights from Dr. Koen Kusters.
“It’s useful for us to understand the landscape and also what’s good for kids in how we engineer the product,” Casalaina says. “But it’s also just good general interest for parents. We’re trying to use that as a springboard to get out there. We’re also consciously not being too kids-y of an app. We want parents to recognize that we’re here for them. We’re here to make screen time with their kids better.”
Alcausin refers to it as a tactical approach, noting, “A big part of that strategy is going to be focused around just engaging with parent communities online. The tone and the way that we want to bring ourselves forward is a bit more pragmatic and not patronizing. We just want to be there for parents as an alternative if they’re looking for something else.”
Parents have a significant level of control through the app, setting the viewing session duration, and can help shape their child’s viewing experience based on their individual needs.
“You’ll say, my kid is three years old, speaks English and Dutch, really likes dinosaurs and trains, but we’re struggling with potty training,” Casalaina says. “Behind the scenes, we’re making a program [session] that suits that child, knowing the age, knowing the interests. As we grow, we’re going to try to find out more about parents’ interests and hobbies.”
“It’s giving parents a way to manage structured programming without having to go into a settings screen,” adds Alcausin. On other services, “You’re a parent in the app looking for all of the different things in the gearbox and trying to figure all that stuff out. In the world that we live in today and the technology that’s available today, we thought, let’s simplify that. We think it provides an added value to parents because they’re able to have more of a connection to how their kid is going to have a relationship with Meevee and Mookee on the screen.”
A co-viewing element is being considered for the future of the app, which launches iOS only this week, as well as tools to help audiences engage with their kids’ screen content.
“It’s not about handing the kid the tablet and then walking away,” Alcausin says. “We want to make sure that parents feel connected to what their kids are watching on the screen. As part of the products we’re building, at the end of a session, the parent will receive a summary of what their kid has watched—the themes they’ve seen or the shows they’ve seen—and prompts to have a conversation with their child afterward. While it’s not co-viewing, specifically sitting down next to the child, it’s still about bridging that connection between screen and off-screen life.”
The response to less screentime has been embraced by many of the producers and distributors Meevee is partnering with, Casalaina says. “People in the space get it—especially this tension between traditional broadcasters and losing funding, going to YouTube because that’s where the viewers are, but then also feeling like, do we belong in this YouTube ecosystem? And so when they hear what we’re trying to do and that our emphasis isn’t just on raw numbers. I think a lot of times it’s a breath of fresh air.”
Ultimately, the team at Meevee hopes to have a lasting impact on the conversation about screen time for kids. “We want parents to have a middle option, so they can help their kids develop really good digital habits early,” Alcausin says. “The reality is they’re going to grow up with screens.”
