Millennials Would Pay For Better TV Program Search

by Wayne Friedman , October 19, 2016

Millennials have little patience when they can’t find the TV content they want, and in general, would “pay” for better search.

TiVo says 54% will drop a show they have previously watched because it is too difficult to access content. Millennials -- those born between 1981 and 1995 -- spend 32 minutes a day searching for content.

In contrast, “boomers” -- those born between 1945 and 1964 -- will only dump a TV show 17% of the time. Overall the U.S. average of all TV viewers is 36%.

Research says 55% of U.S. Millennials would “pay” to simply search across all platforms -- 33% for all U.S. consumers and 8% for boomers.

TiVo was recently bought by the company formerly called Rovi Corp., which licenses electronic TV program guides/software for set-top boxes, TVs and other devices.

TiVo says Millennials watch TV and video content, on linear platforms or streaming -- 6.2 hours a day versus an overall average of 5.6 hours. Boomers watch/stream 4.9 hours a day.

The company's research came from a subset of U.S. results via an online survey of 5,500 pay TV and OTT (over the top) subscribers across seven countries worldwide. Some 2,500 interviews were completed in the U.S., and 500 interviews completed in each additional country, including the UK, France, Germany, China, Japan and India.

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3 comments about "Millennials Would Pay For Better TV Program Search ".

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Richard Reisman from Teleshuttle Corporation, October 19, 2016 at 1:06 p.m.
This is huge missed opportunity and a huge pain point. I blogged about Joe Uva's suggestion of a "Media Concierge" service over 10 years ago, and it has only gotten worse (with a minor respite from Roku, and maybe Tivo). Too many apps and walled gardens, making the pie smaller and harder to feast on for all.
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Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, October 19, 2016 at 4:54 p.m.

I rather doubt that the average millennial spends---wastes might be a better word----half an hour per day searching for TV/video shows to watch. Respondents in a rather generalized study may say so, but the truth is probably only a small fraction of what they claim. As for paying for a service that finds the shoiws they want to watch----again, a pretty vague description----that, too, seems doubtful---unless said service can deliver the goods and at a very reasonable price---another dubious proposition in my opinion.

Cat B from Reelgood replied, October 26, 2016 at 1:26 p.m.

Richard and Wayne, I'd be curious what your thoughts are on our streaming source aggregator, which is our attempt at solving this problem: http://reelgoodapp.com As millennials, we absolutely used to spend that half hour each night looking for what we wanted to watch. Let me know if I can set you up with beta invites: catharine@reelgoodapp.com