A new survey published in February 2017 by Videology found unexpected results about paid-television services and the demographics that support them. As it turns out, millennial men are cutting the cord and leaving traditional television services behind in record numbers.
According to the report, just one-third of millennial men expect to pay for cable television services in 2017. More than half of those same men reported that they have already cut the cord.
These new findings could very well give the more traditional cable and satellite customers reason to panic as the millennial generation comes into their primary spending years. Millennials have long presented a challenge to marketers with their resistance to traditional ideas–ideas like needing to own a car, buy a house or get married. These generational quirks have long been a source of concern for traditional television providers and this new study shows that that concern is, in fact, well founded.
The way millennials consume video content has fundamentally changed as well. The same Videology study found that only 27% of people watch television shows live. Millennials aren’t even using televisions as much any more, with just over 26% reporting that they prefer to catch up on their shows from their laptop or desktop. Surprisingly, 21% of those same millennial men say that they don’t watch television at all.
The general lack of millennial interest in traditional pay-television services may not be the fault of cable and satellite companies. With low wages and a struggling job market, many millennials are being forced to prioritize the services they can afford to pay for. More often than not, millennials seem to be choosing their digital devices over their televisions. Since most devices, like smartphones and tablets, can stream video content from services like Netflix and Hulu anyway, this shift from traditional television is not a big surprise. However, it is a big problem for cable and satellite providers.
The millennial generation has been losing interest in television for some time and these latest Videology numbers show that there does not seem to be any sign of this trend letting up anytime soon. With so many different content provider options out there right now, pay-TV is going to have to make some serious changes to woo back their millennial customers. For now, male millennials seem to be leading the cord-cutting charge, and it’s likely that many more will soon follow suit.
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