Toca TV
© 2016 Toca Boca
8/9/2018 Toca TV was discontinued in 2018. Here's a welcome addition to children's media -- an app that makes it easy to browse, bookmark or make your own videos. Toca TV is a subscription based ($5/month) "interactive video platform." The week old first edition looks promising but we found some issues to note. The core of Toca TV is, of course, the videos. You can either browse or search by keyword. The current selection is more fun than educational (or amazing). There's a lot of crafts, Minecraft and Toca Boca previews. We searched on "piano" and "trumpet" and found nothing of interest. If you're looking for quality non-fiction content, you won't find it in this library (at least in it's current form). Curated content is picked from Toca staff (names are not provided) using a custom scorecard (which is also not provided). According to PR materials, Toca TV screeners look for videos that are free from third-party advertising or sponsored product placement, but we were able to find at least one video with what appears to be sponsored by a brand of nail polish [note Toca Boca's Keely Hopkins has assured us that this particular video is not sponsored. See https://youtu.be/8wjwBDjecT0 for the example]. Also Toca Boca app previews are listed in the "games" category. Still, this is a lot better than YouTube Kids, which is packed with these types of videos. The Toca TV video discovery system uses a card-stacking metaphor for browsing, and it's easy to save videos you want to watch, as long as you're a subscriber. A key feature is the ability to record/save/share your own videos, while mixing in animated stickers. Industry folks will want to know that the head of Toca TV is J Milligan, and that Toca Boca draws content from "75 creators including BroadbandTV (BBTV), DreamworksTV, the kids and family brand from AwesomenessTV, Studio71, and Freedom!" The subscription price is $5/month.
$4.99, iPad, iPhone (iOS 8 or higher)
Teaches: video, TV, science, creativity
CTR Rating: 88%