Millennials are the most active video viewers of any US age group. But understanding their video viewing habits can be difficult, thanks to the changing landscape for digital content viewing and shifting time spent with various screens. A new eMarketer report, “US Millennials and Video: Seven Insights into Their Evolving Screen Choices and Viewing Habits,” explores what marketers need to know.
eMarketer predicts there will be 77 million millennial digital video viewers in 2015, representing more than 92% of all US millennial internet users. Additional growth in new millennial digital video viewers is expected to remain mostly flat for the foreseeable future, given that video viewing is already near ubiquitous for this age group. eMarketer forecasts that the total audience will increase by 1 million or fewer viewers annually through 2019.
The video consumption habits of US millennials are more pronounced when compared with other age groups. In 2015, eMarketer expects 25- to 34-year-olds to make up the largest segment of digital video viewers of any age group, accounting for more than 18% of the 204.2 million digital video viewers in the US. Adults in the 18-to-34 age group, along with 12- to 17-year-olds (some of whom are millennials) have the highest levels of digital video viewer penetration among all age groups, reaching levels of more than 90%.
Much as marketers and experts try, there is no single unifying theme that explains the video habits of US millennials. Instead, there is a shifting landscape of video viewing options, fluid boundaries between traditional TV and digital video, and changes in the millennial mindset toward video content—all of which contribute to their screen time and content choices.
For example, they still watch lots of TV—at least for now. According to Nielsen, US adults ages 18 to 24 watched more than 18.5 hours of traditional TV per week, while those in the 25-to-34 age group watched nearly 25 hours per week. While this is less time spent than older generations, it still made up the majority of millennials’ media time.
Source: eMarketer