TV Dominates Millennials' Video Time

by Wayne Friedman , July 25, 2016

Millennials overwhelmingly spend more video time with TV than any other medium -- and some of those numbers are growing.

Some 65 million Millennials watched TV in the first quarter this year versus 61 million for the same period in 2002, according to the Video Advertising Bureau.

Millennials’ spend 88% of their video time watching on TV versus 4% on smartphones or tablets. Looking at the TV-centric measure -- Nielsen average audience per minute -- TV gets 9.1 million millennials, versus 4.9 million for smartphones and 1.1 million for tablets.

Analyzing specific digital video platforms, only Facebook, YouTube or Pandora would rank within the top 100 TV programs for millennials. On a time-spent basis, TV outpaces Facebook and YouTube in average audience by more than 3 to 1 and 4 to 1, respectively

Although YouTube viewing is rising for 18 to 24-year-olds, TV still commands 77% of their viewing time -- 47 hours against 14 hours.

In May 2016, adults 18-34 watched nearly 61 hours of ad-supported TV against nearly 14 hours of YouTube -- 82% to 18%. For 25-34, TV time those numbers are 70 hours versus 13 hours for YouTube -- 84% to 16%.

The VAB says that although Millennials watch much of their TV binge-watching online, they watch 90% of their TV viewing live.

media measurement, millennials, mobile, tv, video

2 comments about "TV Dominates Millennials' Video Time".

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Michael Elling from IVP Capital, LLC, July 25, 2016 at 1:47 p.m.
Not sure I understand. Is it 88% or 9.1/15.1 = 60%? Please clarify. Thanks.
Reply

Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, July 25, 2016 at 3:08 p.m.

Perhaps I can clarify, Mike. According to Nielsen's recently released First Quarter 2016 "Comparable Metrics Report", during an average week 78% of all 18-34 in its panel watched "TV", while 60% watched smartphone videos, 28% watched videos on PCs and 23% watched them on tablets. However, when it came to frequency---or time spent----and contrary to all of the propaganda about smartphone videos being "the platform of choice" for the all-important millennials, this is how the average minute audience compared for 18-34s:TV-8,849207, PC-1,105,124. Smartphone-299,077 and tablets-199,001. In short "TV" garnered 85% of the total TV/video time for all four "platforms".

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