Report: Millennials Represent 43% of Non-Pay-TV Subs

24 Jan, 2017 By: Erik Gruenwedel

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Millennials (consumers ages 18 to 34) don’t subscribe to conventional pay-TV services. Indeed, the demo represents nearly 50% of the domestic cordless population that eschews cable, satellite and/or telco TV service, according to new from British research firm GfK.

Millennials, instead, rely on streaming video and online TV, spending 65% of their viewing time streaming via a TV set or other connected device. That’s almost double compared with cordless Boomers (ages 53 to 71), who spend the majority (56%) of their viewing time watching live TV.

In a study of 25,000 respondents, GfK found Millennials who have cut the pay-TV cord (versus those who never had pay-TV) are more likely to stream video via YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video. They also over-index for smaller entity apps such as Crunchy Roll, Twitch and Adult Swim.

The demo is the reason online TV services such as Sling TV, PlayStation Vue, DirecTV Now and Charter Spectrum TV Plus exist, in addition to SVOD services HBO Now, Showtime, Starz, Acorn TV and Dove Channel, among others.

Cordless Millennials define television as something consumed on any device — a TV, laptop, smartphone or tablet. They are most likely to go to a specific show on a streaming service — with 34% citing on-demand access as their default viewing strategy.

The study also found the demo represents heavy streamers, heavy binge viewers, but minimal TV consumers overall.

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