When it comes to Millennials, there remains a large gap between the number of those who engage with content online, and the number of those who pay for it, according to a new report.
But, still, more than six in 10 Millennials purchase some form of content online every month and “There is reason for optimism here though: across all of the categories of paid-for content in our list, Millennials are much more likely than others to be purchasing them,” according to the report from London-based Global Web Index (GWI).
The first-quarter 2016 report — based on the online behaviors of 42,460 Millennials — found that Millennials watch an average of two hours of linear live TV per day, about a half hour less than the average internet user overall, and spend about more than an hour a day on online TV content. Roughly 50% of Millennials watch Netflix at least once a month.
But for companies concerned about ad blocking services, there’s reason to worry: more than four in 10 Millennials said they used an ad blocker in March. “The impact of the almost constant media coverage and a proliferation of ad-blocking software is having a clear impact on awareness of, and engagement with, these tools,” the report reads. “But this trend does not necessarily equate to zero exposure to ads among these users. In fact, over 15% of ad-blocking Millennials say they have clicked on an online ad in the past month.”
Overall, four in 10 said they find brands via TV ads, and one in three Millennials said they find brands via ads they saw online.
On the device front, GWI found that 87% of Millennials now own a smartphone, just barely edging out PCs and laptops (85%) as the device most people in that age group own. Tablets (just over 50%) and internet-connected TVs (just under 50%) were third and fourth, respectively. Millennials report spending about three hours per day online using their phones.
More than 90% of Millennials said they visited a social network in March, averaging more than 7.5 social media accounts, with active use in four networks. That’s compared to six networks for the average internet user.
