Young Viewers 18-34 Choose Live TV Only 11% Of The Time After Turning TV On

• by Wayne Friedman , September 16, 2021

Only 11% of young viewers 18-34 this year are going to live TV channels from cable, satellite, or telco services after turning on their TV sets -- down from 14% in 2020 and 21% in 2019, according to Hub Entertainment Research.

At the same time, those same young viewers -- 18- to-34-year-olds -- go to Netflix 31% of the time after turning on their TV sets. And good news for the five next-biggest streaming platforms and competitors to Netflix is that their share is growing -- now at 24%.

The share was 16% in 2020 and 14% in 2019 among 18- to-34-year-olds. This seems to have come at the expense of Netflix, which dipped from 39% in 2020 to a 31% data point this year.

The study characterizes the networks and platforms viewers go to after turning on their TV sets as “default” networks.

When a broader range of consumers 16-74 were asked if they could pick only one individual TV provider/network/platform, “live TV” -- from cable, satellite and telco providers -- was on top with a 35% score. Netflix came in at 28%, followed by Hulu with 16%, Amazon Prime Video, at14%, HBO Max with 9% and Disney+ at 8%.

Looking more broadly at platforms -- online versus pay TV -- 55% of all respondents said online was their “default source for TV viewing," while 39% said that pay TV -- live TV/DVR/VOD -- was their default source.

The data for these results was collected in August 2021, and comes from a study conducted among 1,616 U.S. consumers ages 16-74 who have broadband, and who watch at least one hour of TV per week.