The most recent quarterly TV viewing figures from Nielsen are in, allowing for an analysis of almost 5 years’ worth of Americans’ traditional TV viewing data. The short of it? Yes, youth as a whole are watching less traditional TV.
But the data in the Q3 2015 total audience report from Nielsen suggests that the declines may be slowing, and that traditional TV remains the primary video viewing mechanism for adults across age groups.
Nielsen’s most recent “Total Audience Report” indicates that Americans aged 18-24 watched a weekly average of 15-and-a-half hours of traditional TV during Q3 2015. That represents a year-over-year decline of a little more than 2 hours per week. In other words, 18-24-year-olds as a group went from watching about 2-and-a-half hours per day during the third quarter of 2014 to a little more than 2 hours and ten minutes per day during Q3 of this year.
Of note, however, this was the smallest year-over-year drop among the 18-24 population since Q1 2014, and is the third consecutive quarter where there has been a contraction in the year-over-year viewing decline. Could traditional TV viewing be reaching its nadir for this age group? Time will tell…
Nevertheless, between 2011 and 2015, Q3 traditional TV viewing by 18-24-year-olds dropped by almost 8-and-a-half hours per week, or by more than an hour and ten minutes per day.
In percentage terms, Q3 traditional TV viewing by 18-24-year-olds was down by 11.8% year-over-year and has now fallen by 35% between 2011 and 2015.
In other words, in the space of 4 years, more than one-third of this age group’s traditional TV viewing time has migrated to other activities or streaming (more on that below).
The interactive chart below offers a visual presentation of traditional TV consumption figures for each age bracket, showing how this type of TV viewing is trending down (sloping to the left) for younger demos, while remaining steady if not slightly increasing (sloping to the right) for the oldest group.
The drop-off in viewing among 18-24-year-olds is a little less dramatic when looking just at persons in TV households (TV viewers).
Among 18-24-year-old viewers, the Q3 2015 average of 82 hours and 56 minutes per month was down from 91 hours and 32 minutes per month during Q3 2014, representing a drop of more than 8-and-a-half hours per month.
Again, though, this was a smaller decline than in Q2 (roughly 11 hours per month), and the per-day decline of around 17 minutes is a little smaller than the viewing drop among the 18-24 population overall (roughly 22 minutes per day).
What About Other Age Groups?
Of course, there are other age groups of interest when analyzing traditional TV viewing, including teens (a potential leading indicator) and older Millennials (aged 25-34), who might be more apt to watch traditional TV as they round into life stages such as parenthood and home ownership.
Looking at the latest Total Audience Report, the data indicates that:
- Teens (12-17) watched 17 hours of traditional TV per week in Q3, an 11.5% drop year-over-year and a 30% contraction from 2011;
- Older Millennials (25-34) watched 21 hours and 10 minutes per week in Q3, an 8.6% decrease year-over-year and a 23.8% drop from 2011;
- Gen Xers (35-49) watched 28 hours and 41 minutes per week, a 3.4% decrease year-over-year (equating to 1 hour per week) and a 10.7% contraction from 2011;
- Adults aged 50-64 watched 39 hours and 21 minutes per week, flat year-over-year (down only 2 minutes per week) and down just 2% from Q3 2011 (about three-quarters of an hour per week); and
- Adults aged 65 and older watched 47 hours and 33 minutes per week, up 20 minutes per week from the previous year (<1%) and up about 5% from 2011.
Those results strongly show the age-related skew in traditional TV viewing, with declines easing off with each age bracket. To wit, the 65+ group has only recorded two quarters (in Q4 2014 and Q1 2015) of declines in traditional TV viewing in almost 5 years.
Overall, live TV consumption by adults averaged 4 hours and 7 minutes per day in Q3, down from 4 hours and 13 minutes per day during Q3 2014 and 4 hours and 27 minutes per day in Q3 2013. Clearly, those modest declines mask the larger drops among younger age groups.