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Younger Viewers Less Likely To Skip Ads, But Still Tune Out

Despite the conventional wisdom, Millennials are actually less likely to skip TV ads.

That’s the finding of a new report from Nielsen, detailing video viewing behavior of the younger generation when it comes to TV.

During commercials in prime-time shows, about 5.5% of the  35 to 54 crowd changed the channel, with 8% of the 55 and older crew doing so. Meanwhile, Millennials channel surfed on the remote less than 2% of the time during breaks. But here’s the rub: They aren’t necessarily watching ads.

The report found Millennials had the lowest engagement and ad recall of the shows in the study. Most of the time, this group was preoccupied during commercial breaks with other devices, like their phones. Marketers can only hope that some subliminal messaging rubs off.

The report also detailed that among those 18 to 34, about 66% of their weekly video viewing comes from traditional TV, compared to 89% for those over 35. That’s a sizable gap.

Nielsen says the rest of the viewing time for the 18 to 34 crowd is spent via connected devices like DVD players, game consoles or streaming devices. Together, these TV-connected devices comprise about 23% of the total viewing time for this age group. That compares to only 6% for the older group. Where does the rest of the viewing go? It’s divided between combos of computers and mobile devices.

In other video news, "Saturday Night Live"'s YouTube channel has seen a 48% boost in subscriber growth in the last six months, driven by its popular political sketches. The channel has grown from 2.5 million to more than 3.8 million subscribers in that time. The channel’s top four videos are Trump-related.

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