Millennials Still Favor Trad TV

by Wayne Friedman , October 15, 2014

While millennials are big digital users -- with almost a third of their original TV viewing coming from laptop, tablet, smartphone -- those 18-34s continue to get the majority of their TV viewing from traditional TV.

Some 66% of time 18-34s watch original TV series coming from traditional TV, according to a new comScore video research study. Desktop/laptop computers comprise 19% of their time; and 6% each for tablets and smartphones.

Those in the next age bracket -- 35-54 -- jump to 84% when it comes to traditional TV; 10% for desktop/laptops; 3% for tablets, and 2% for smartphones.

Going forward, however, millennials are not likely to be big traditional TV viewers.

The study says 18-34s are 77% are more likely than average to be a “cord-never” household, having never subscribed to pay TV, with 67% more likely than average to be a “cord-cutter” household, where they stop subscribing.

The study notes that it’s not only about age but types of households that impact viewing. Of homes that are currently without pay TV services, 60% of single-person households and 52% of households without children have never had a pay TV subscription.

The report came from an online questionnaire of 1,159 respondents from August 21-28.

demographics, millennials, trends, tv

2 comments about "Millennials Still Favor Trad TV".

Check to receive email when comments are posted.

Douglas Ferguson from College of Charleston, October 15, 2014 at 1:15 p.m.
When certain content is only available on traditional TV, as with a live event for which exclusive rights have been assigned to linear channels, is it fair to assert that viewers have somehow chosen traditional TV over all other venues? It's not as if they had another option.
Reply

Claudio Marcus from FreeWheel, October 15, 2014 at 1:41 p.m.

The article fails to reveal the average level for "cord cutting" and "cord nevers" in the general population, and without it the millennials stated percentage above the average is practically meaningless. For example if the "cord cutter" average is 6.5% overall, then "cord cutter" millennials would still only amount to less than 12%, which clearly would not justify such bold statement as "millennials aren’t likely to be big traditional TV viewers."