Young audiences are abandoning broadcast TV in favour of online video, according to Stockholm-based consultancy Mediavision.
The third quarter proved to be tough for traditional TV in Scandinavia, despite the European football championships and the Summer Olympics. Mediavision says that in some age groups the decline can only be described as a freefall. Among 15-24 year olds the drop was in double digits. In Denmark the decline was a staggering -29%. In absolute numbers this represents a loss of 22 minutes compared to the same quarter last year.
“It is by no means “breaking news” that traditional TV is under pressure. What is remarkable is that the decline is accelerating in a time period with top sports events,” said Marie Nilsson, CEO at Mediavision. “We have seen for some time now, that large groups of viewers are migrating from broadcast to online video services. As viewing behaviour changes, demand for new types of content aggregation as well as bundling will increase. In this transformation, TV operators will likely play a key role in the way they choose to integrate online content into their current offering.”
The negative viewing trend is, however, not solely a phenomenon among the young. During the third quarter, daily viewing time declined in almost all age groups. In Sweden, viewing time among 25-34 year olds dropped by more than -10% and compared to 2012 the decline is close to -40%.
