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Children's TV is under threat from scientists trying to develop new techniques to limit the time youngsters spend watching programmes.
Research company AC Nielsen has found children in New Zealand spend on average two hours and 11 minutes a day watching TV but the maximum recommended by the Agencies for Nutrition Action coalition is an hour.
TV watching has been linked with obesity and nearly a third of Kiwi children are overweight or obese.
Auckland University has got $148,000 from the Government to find a technique or device to cut the habit.
A pilot trial will be carried out on 30 children aged 9 to 12 who watch more than 20 hours a week. If successful, it will be tested in a bigger trial of up to 300 children.
Dr Cliona Ni Mhurchu, programme director for nutrition and physical activity at the university's clinical trials research unit, said yesterday a tamper-proof timer that switched the TV off after a pre-set duration was one device being considered.
In the United States, children had lost almost half a unit on the body mass index scale in a six-month trial of the device.
Active video games are being trialled as part of a $1.7 million Health Research Council grant.
These are alternatives to couch-based, joypad video games and include boxing, baseball and dancing.
An earlier study using movement meters on children found that at rest, they burned about 1.8 calories each minute, as against 1.6 calories while playing the sedentary video games.
They burned between 2.9 and 6.5 calories during the active video games.
