A recent survey has found that over 10% of young adults, or “millennials,” are committed to living without pay TV – and almost another 30% are considering joining them.
As reported by
Broadcasting & Cable, the results of a recent survey by Pivot – a cable network planned to launch in August – show that many younger adults prefer to build their entertainment lives around broadband sources like Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu, rather than the cable and satellite industry’s forced “bundling,” exorbitant prices, and lack of choice.
Pivot’s online survey of 2,500 adults aged 18-49 divided those surveyed into “broadbanders,” people who do not have cable or satellite TV but who watch programming via the Internet, and “cross-platformers,” who do have pay TV and use it and the Internet both. The key finding was that 8.6 million 18-34 year olds (13%) are committed to staying broadband-only. This is a much higher percentage than was previously reported. Also, about 30 million “cross-platformers” are considering moving from their current pay-TV packages to broadband only. After extensive questioning, the survey showed that about the only thing that would lure more millennials into subscribing to a pay TV service was the promise of being able to watch live and on-demand programming on any device (smartphone, iPad, laptop or TV) at any time. But even then, most said they did not want to pay more than $20 a month for such service.
Clearly, “Choice” is the keyword for younger adults today. By utterly failing to offer such choice, and forcing customers to pay for hundreds of channels they never watch, the entertainment industry is driving away the very age group it seeks to appeal to most.
