Teens/ Cable TV Viewing Down, While Netflix And YouTube Up

by Wayne Friedman , April 20, 2018

Teen viewing of traditional cable TV programs is down, mostly thanks to Netflix, YouTube and other streaming video, according to Piper Jaffray.

The company says teens allocate 20% of their daily video time to linear cable TV -- down from 23% in spring 2017, and 26% in the same period a year before that.

By comparison, Netflix had a 39% daily use number -- up from 37% the year before; YouTube, 30% (up from 26%); Hulu is currently at 5% (up from 4%), and other streaming services are at a collective 6% (down from 9%).

Piper Jaffray says the spring 2018 survey was conducted with 6,000 teens in 40 U.S states, with an average age of 16.4 years old, and an average household income of $66,300. Homes were 55% male and 45% female.

As part of the same survey, 45% of respondents said their favorite social-media platform was SnapChat, while 26% said it was Instagram; 9%,Twitter; 8%, Facebook; and 1%, Pinterest.

The research also notes that overall teen consumer spending was up 6% from its fall 2017 survey period; and 2% higher than from the same period a year ago.

netflix, streaming, teens, tv, youtube

3 comments about "Teens/ Cable TV Viewing Down, While Netflix And YouTube Up".

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Jack Wakshlag from Media Strategy, Research & Analytics, April 20, 2018 at 11:57 a.m.
With all the enhanced data we have on ciewingci am astounded that these types of surveys get any attention at all. We know survey yield biased research and have known it for decades (see CRE Video Consumer Mapping Study). Same on Piper Jaffray for spending good money on this nonsense.
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Jack Wakshlag from Media Strategy, Research & Analytics replied, April 20, 2018 at noon

Oops. No without typos.

With all the enhanced data we have on viewing I am astounded that these types of surveys get any attention at all. We know these types of surveys yield biased results and have known it for decades (see CRE Video Consumer Mapping Study). Does Piper Jaffray even bother studying this industry? Shame on Piper Jaffray for spending good money on this nonsense.

Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, April 20, 2018 at 12:18 p.m.

According to the information posted on the Piper Jaffray website the finding about what "Gen Z" watches was based on claimed daily reach of various platforms, not time spent as stated in the MP writeup. In other words, only 20% of the respondents said that they watched any cable programming on an average day. As to whether any of this is credible, virtually no info of value is provided about the methodology, cooperation rates, etc. that I could find, though, no doubt PJ would answer questions if asked.

To Jack's point, I regard most---though not all----of these "let's ask some folks" studies as basically promotional in nature. Either they are trying to promote a point, like "the eye balls are fleeing TV" or they are designed to position the sponsor as "an expert" in a particular field. The latter is not, in itself, a bad thing, providing the study is conducted with some degree of objectivity and reasonably full disclosure is available about its methodology.The former----trying to prove a point----type of research always needs very close scrutiny, especially by the reporters, particularly when other information---usually from superior sources----is available. In such cases why not ask those who put out the press release how they explain any seeming contradictions or, better yet, do a little interviewing and ask people with some knowledge---no I'm not volunteering----what they think of the findings?