Netflix may have some competition not usually talked about in the same breathe as Walt Disney, WarnerMedia, NBCUniversal and Apple when it comes to new premium streaming video services.
Think
YouTube.
The Google video platform is a major attraction to teens, according to a recent report from Piper Jaffray. Its survey shows teens' daily video consumption
with YouTube is at a 37% share -- up five percentage points from an earlier study.
Netflix is at a 35% share, down two points.
Both YouTube and Netflix results are much higher than the
next media channel on the list, cable TV, which is at a 12% share. Hulu is next at a 7% number; Amazon Prime Video, 3%; others, 5%.
Comparisons may be an oranges-and-apple way of thinking:
YouTube has a different monetization model than Netflix -- focusing heavily on advertising. Netflix is a no-ad, subscription model of premium TV series (many from those same legacy TV companies),
documentaries and movies.
advertisement
advertisement
In contrast, YouTube has a variety of TV-video content -- professional stuff from TV companies and user-generated video. The former gets priced at a higher level from
big brand advertisers. The latter garners lower-priced ad sales.
Factor in the median age consumption of digital video platforms going forward: Legacy TV producers' content displayed on
broadcast and cable networks, focusing on a wide-ranging content, has a naturally older (and bigger) audience.
In a December Nielsen survey, the media researcher said the median age of the top
five broadcast TV networks is 56; set-top-box video on demand, 45; connected device, 42; and digital, 40.
If you are looking for a trend line here, concerning future YouTube and Netflix
content users, look at the past.
Think about 17-year-old viewers clamoring for MTV videos/programming back in 1993. Those MTVers are now 43-year-old TV/media users/viewers.
What are
they watching now?