• by P.J. Bednarski , Staff Writer @pjbtweet, July 6, 2015

It would seem PewDiePie is still doing quite well. In fact, according to new data reported by GameSpot.com, it appears that last year the Swedish YouTube host made $7.5 million, or as they like to say over there, 63,000 SEK. 

The Wall Street Journal last year that he made $4 million the year before. Then, like now, Mr. Pie, actually a person named Felix Kjellberg, said he was more than a little uncomfortable making all that bread for, basically, playing computer games on YouTube and generally messing around.

PewDiePie is one of 55,000 YouTube channels Maker Studios now operates.

As I recall, there was a lot of grousing last year about why a YouTube host should be making that kind of money , as if paying Leslie Moonves $57 million makes perfect sense. A “service” called Celebrity NetWorth says Vanna White makes $8 million a year for turning letters. No one in this country does it better.

Since 2013, PewDiePie has been the leading YouTube character, by subscribers--he has over 37 million. He says, "I'm so central to YouTube now, and that puts me in the spotlight and raises a lot of questions like 'Why is he so big?’ I'd much rather prefer to have something like 5 million subscribers."

And of course, so would I.

This would serve as the perfect segue to an AdAge story that reports, statistically, what just about all business people I talk to say about how their kids only watch iPads, not the TV. (When I wrote more about TV, most TV executives also said their kids didn’t watch TV much, either. Make of that what you will.)

Now, this story details research from Miner & Co Studio, that says more than 57% of parents say their children would rather watch video on a handheld device than watch TV. Nearly half the parents also say that if their kids act up, they take away the tablet and make them watch TV instead. With those stupid remotes! (The other half, possibly, are sent outside to play and instructed not to come home until they’re exhausted.)

In the United Kingdom, according to one study, one out of three schoolchildren have their own tablet and, this British study says, there are also a third fewer kids who have a TV in their bedrooms. Back here, YouTube Kids has come on quickly, and also created its own controversy.  The Center for Digital Democracy and the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood have complained to the FTC about inappropriate material on it.  

But if TV is the plug-in drug, tablets may be the built-in drug. Parents used to be sure their kids couldn’t figure out a VCR. Now 2-year-olds might as well be ordering their own diapers on Amazon. AdAge even says that some of the kids would forgo a treat if it meant they’d have to give up their tablets.

So what to do? Probably, nothing. That’s worked so far. But as for the survey, this one may show you’re as helpless as a parent as a lot of other people. The story is great fodder for late-night talk show monologues. I can’t wait to watch clips on YouTube a couple days from now.

pj@mediapost.com