Millennials More Likely to Stream, Less Likely to Avoid Ads

Millennials spend about 27% less time watching traditional TV than older consumers, instead spending about one-third of their viewing time streaming content, according to a new report by Nielsen.

While 66% of millennials’ total viewing time is still spent on a TV set, 23% is via streaming on a TV-connected device and 11% via a PC, smartphone or tablet. By comparison, consumers 35 and older spend only 6% of their viewing time streaming via a TV-connected device, Nielsen’s first "Millennials on Millennials" report found.

Marketers are focused on millennials as they enter their early spending years, presumably with brand preferences still malleable.

Nielsen found that millennials are the least likely to change channels during commercial breaks while watching TV shows. Fewer than 2% of 18 to 34-year-olds changed channels during commercials, compared with 5.5% of those 35 to 43 years of age and more than 8% of viewers 55 and older.

Read more at broadcastingcable.com.

Jon Lafayette

Jon has been business editor of Broadcasting+Cable since 2010. He focuses on revenue-generating activities, including advertising and distribution, as well as executive intrigue and merger and acquisition activity. Just about any story is fair game, if a dollar sign can make its way into the article. Before B+C, Jon covered the industry for TVWeek, Cable World, Electronic Media, Advertising Age and The New York Post. A native New Yorker, Jon is hiding in plain sight in the suburbs of Chicago.