Although CEE millennials are spending less time watching TV, the region has a slower rate of TV viewership loss than Western European markets.
According to an analysis by MEC, this viewing time decline is strongly linked to the development of SVOD services.
Quoting data produced by Nielsen, Kantar TNS, TNS PMT, MEC says that TV viewing times among millennials in CEE (aged 13-29) fell by 3-6% between 2015 and 2016. There was also a similar decline in the number of representatives of this age group who turn their TV sets on every day.
Average daily viewing time in Poland fell by 5%. However, with millennials spending 133 minutes a day watching TV in 2016, Poland was among the highest ranked countries in the region. It was outranked by Hungary (166 minutes) and Romania (185 minutes), while in Lithuania the figure was only 79 minutes, with fewer than one in three viewers switching on their TV sets for at least five minutes each day. In the case of Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the latter figure was a much higher 46%.
The 13% decline in average daily viewing time in Lithuania between 2015 and 2016 was similar to that in Scandinavian markets and the Netherlands, where the expansion of SVOD services has weakened traditional TV in recent years.
However, the decline in popularity of traditional TV is not as significant in those West European countries where SVOD services are less successful.
According to Anna Lubowska, regional chairman at MEC, “Young people have always spent less time watching television, only to return in front of TV sets after having started a family. However, SVOD appears to be the most serious competitor that traditional television has encountered so far, and it may change the course of events with regard to the current young generation. Also, younger populations are experiencing a shift of viewing patterns and elimination of barriers, which the older users associate with VOD services”.
