Commentary
YouTube Is Bigger Among Teens Than Netflix
- by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, October 11, 2019
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.
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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?
Wayne Friedman is West Coast Editor of MediaPost. You can reach Wayne at wayne@mediapost.com.
Wayne, last time I looked Nielsen was reporting that the average teen--12-17----spent about 1.5 hours per day watching "linear TV" content---broadcast and cable. Sure, this is down from years ago when the daily consumption was probably double what it is now, but if cable TV's "share" of TV/video viewing ia a mere 12% ---as reported by this study---and we toss in another 3% for broadcast TV---making the total for "linear TV' 15% and Nielsen's average day consumption data is also correct--1.5 hours of "linear TV" viewed per teen per day, then putting the two sets information together, the average teen devotes 10 hours per day to TV/video. Does that sound right? If so, imagine the amount of TV/video that the heaviest teen quintile must be doing---at least 20 hour per day and maybe 25 or 30 hours? Does something sound wrong here?