Traditional TV Still Reaches Key Student Demo

Watch-TVAll students, college and high school, still do most of their TV watching in conventional ways on a TV screen -- but just barely.

A new study from New York-based Youth Pulse (Ypulse), the youth marketing research/information company, says college and high-school students view TV shows on traditional TV 53% of the time. Just looking at college students alone, this number drops to 46%.

An analysis from the company suggests that college students with more of an out-of-home busy schedule than high-schoolers can't always rely on accessing traditional TV. There is also an issue of finance.

Of those college students that have a TV set, 11% have no service. They probably use it for streaming, gaming or watching DVDs. If they do have some subscription TV service, it is probably a basic, low-cost channel service.

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The survey says 34% pay at least part of the bill themselves. Thirty-eight percent say their parents pay the monthly bill for their TV service, while 26% say it comes as part of the package with their dorm room or apartment.

Few students are unfamiliar with nontraditional, digital online viewing.

For example, only 12% of high schoolers say they have never watched a TV show online. According to Ypulse, only 28% say they can’t live without TV, compared to 83% who say they can’t imagine life without music.

The study came from 1,647 interviews between July 29 and August 17, 2011 and 1,499 interviews between Sept. 29 and Oct. 26, 2011.

1 comment about "Traditional TV Still Reaches Key Student Demo".
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  1. Doug Garnett from Protonik, LLC, December 1, 2011 at 12:31 p.m.

    Interesting, Wayne. Wish the study had included historical data and comparisons.

    From what I've seen, it appears that the time apart from traditional TV isn't taking away from their TV time, but from other activities. That's confirmed when I look at my sons activities watching on his iPhone or on the computer. Primarily, he's making do when he can't watch on the TV (after all, it's much more fun to watch on a real TV set and the best programming is coming through the cable pipe even if it's time shifted).

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