TiVo Research’s Second Annual Millennial Survey finds millennials in the US watch more music videos and less live sports than other generations.
Traditional TV programming (shows developed for linear TV distribution via broadcast or cable) are Millennials’ favorite type of video content. TV shows accounted for 43% of Millennials’ video viewing, followed by theatrical films at 18% with sports and music videos tied for third at 10%.
TiVo Research’s 2014 online survey, compared Millennials’ behaviors to those of other generations and covered a broad range of video activity that included what they were watching, how they were accessing the video content and whether their video consumption has increased or decreased in the past year.
Millennials exhibit a greater propensity for streaming video content, with 68% utilising free streaming sites (such as ABC.com, CBS.com and YouTube) compared to other generations at 43%. 66% of Millennials reported they typically utilize subscription sites (e.g. Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, HBO Go) with the other generations citing 44 percent usage and only 43% of Millennials receive content from an MVPD, a full ten percent below the average of the other generations.
Video consumption varies dramatically by generation, but all agree on their top two preferred types of video: TV shows and full-length movies. After that, Millennials watch more music videos and less live sports than other generations. But there is one relatively new category that ranks fifth on the Millennials chart and that barely registers with the other generations: videos of other people playing video games. This phenomenon is so popular entire sites are devoted to this activity including the popular twitch.tv, which was recently acquired by Amazon.
Despite differences in the types of video watched on television there are consistent trends that cut across every generation. When asked about how their consumption of video has changed versus a year ago, all four generations reported a decline in watching full-length movies and live events (non-sports), while viewing of TV shows and clips of TV shows is on the rise.
To collect data for the 2014 Millennial Video Entertainment survey TiVo Research conducted an online survey of 3,009 people, ages 13 to 74 years old, between September 26 and October 1, 2014. Participants were evenly balanced by age and gender. 1,261 were Millennials (ages 13-34); Gen X participants totaled 641 (ages 35-49); 978 Baby Boomers (ages 50-68); 102 from the Silent Generation (ages 69-74).
