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Stats Television Media The Internet Entertainment

Only 39 Percent of Viewers Choose Live TV As Their Default Option, Says Study (deadline.com) 96

Posted by BeauHD from the channel-surfing dept.
According to a new study by Hub Entertainment Research, viewers are increasingly defaulting to on-demand sources like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Hulu instead of live TV. The study found that only 39% of viewers tune into live programming from a traditional pay-TV provider, down from 47% last year. On-demand sources, collectively, were the first choice for 48% of viewers. Deadline reports: For viewers aged 18-34, the pattern is more stark -- only about a quarter (26%) of the demo lists live TV as a default, compared with 35% a year ago. One clear influence on consumer behavior is the increase in TV sources -- the average person has 4.5 distinct sources to choose from (including linear TV, DVR, VOD, Netflix, etc.). That number is up from 3.7 in 2014. Among viewers 18-34, the number is higher, at 5.1 sources -- plus, Hub found that fully 50% of 18-34-year-olds subscribe to at least two of the "big three" SVOD services, Netflix, Amazon or Hulu. Even older generations accustomed to the "clicker" have turned away from live TV as a default. About 56% of viewers 55 and older listed live as their first choice, but that's down from 66% a year ago.
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Only 39 Percent of Viewers Choose Live TV As Their Default Option, Says Study More

Only 39 Percent of Viewers Choose Live TV As Their Default Option, Says Study

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  • Commercials (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Fly Swatter ( 30498 ) on Friday July 13, 2018 @07:16PM (#56944670) Homepage
    Excessive advertising, they did magazines in, now so too TV. The world-wide-web is next.

    • Re:Commercials (Score:5, Insightful)

      by nehumanuscrede ( 624750 ) on Friday July 13, 2018 @09:35PM (#56945192)

      No lie there.

      Once advertisements in magazines exceeded the number of articles or information I wanted to read, I ceased all of my subscriptions. ( years ago mind you )

      I've actually blocked entire TV networks ( I'm looking at you FX ) because of their advertising methods. Early in the show, the ratio of show to commercials favors the show. However, the longer the show runs, the less you get to see in one segment before the next set of commercials ( which, maddeningly, are the same GD commercials over and Over and OVER again ) breaks in. By the end of the show, you're lucky to get 5-7 minutes of show without a commercial break.

      Fuck that. Program it out.

      You're right though. We're seeing the same shit happen with the net and excessive advertising will be its demise.

  • I've been using Tivo since 2000 (Score:5, Informative)

    by SensitiveMale ( 155605 ) on Friday July 13, 2018 @07:18PM (#56944676)

    FF, rewinding, and saving programs are necessary. Watching a 60 minute show in 40 minutes makes a huge difference. Skipping over a boring segment and saving another 10 to 20 minutes saves even more time.

    Oh, and pausing at boobs on TV. That's killer.

    • Oh, and pausing at boobs on TV. That's killer.

      It was what got me watching Survivor again.

    • Skipping over a boring segment

      Since the rise in reality shows, its been a bit more than 10 to 20 mins here. Some might say the entire genre.

    • >"I've been using Tivo since 2000. FF, rewinding, and saving programs are necessary. "

      Me too. Been doing it since the first TiVo came out. I can't stand commercials and the lack of control. I also can't imagine watching any other way. It is even MORE convenient that streaming because it doesn't require a live Internet connection to play it, all actions are instant and smooth, I can even look frame-by-frame, and it starts at full res (no "ramping up and down" depending on bandwidth or checking). Plu

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by antdude ( 79039 )

      Only boobs? What about other stuff? :P

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by pnutjam ( 523990 )
      Comcast might be a bunch of asshats, but their x1 interface does it right. I can record a program, easily switch to a streaming version if I tune into something midway throught, or set a recording for a later airing if no on-demand is avaliable.

      They throw up the 'no-fast forwarding' warning on the on-demand programs, but I have yet to find one where ff or 30-second skip button doesn't work. When I had U-verse, they really meant it and it was a huge pain to ff on-demand. God forbid your DVR misses the last

  • Tech changed (Score:3)

    by darkain ( 749283 ) on Friday July 13, 2018 @08:07PM (#56944832) Homepage

    A large part of this is due to the fact that the switch over to ATSC, there was a lot of confusion. Most people think that OTA TV doesn't even exist anymore now that analog TV is gone. My peers, even tech ones, are shocked to find out that I have a network attached ATSC tuner for my house and can stream live TV on every device in my house from it.

  • as a coincidence... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by roc97007 ( 608802 )

    As a complete coincidence, according to the last census, people in the US age 45 and over account for 39.4 percent of the population. Expect the percentage of "live TV" viewers to drop almost directly as people born in 1975 and earlier age and drop off the end.

    In other words, watching "live tv" is largely an old person's pastime. What I choose to call "the TV tray generation".[1] And it's dying out.

    [1] Yes, I know 45 to 85 or thereabouts can arguably be called two generations. Work with me here.

    • As a complete coincidence, according to the last census, people in the US age 45 and over account for 39.4 percent of the population. Expect the percentage of "live TV" viewers to drop almost directly as people born in 1975 and earlier age and drop off the end.

      In other words, watching "live tv" is largely an old person's pastime. What I choose to call "the TV tray generation".[1] And it's dying out.

      [1] Yes, I know 45 to 85 or thereabouts can arguably be called two generations. Work with me here.

      See, I think the question's wording is going to alter the calculus in one form or another.

      I've got more friends who will actively sit-down-and-expressly-watch a TV show on Netflix than they will watch it on the actual cable channel when it broadcasts. At the same time, many of those same people leave NCIS reruns or HGTV running in the background just to add a little noise to their apartment. I'm not saying the TV tray generation didn't do passive TV watching at all, but I think the lack of both streaming se

      • As a complete coincidence, according to the last census, people in the US age 45 and over account for 39.4 percent of the population. Expect the percentage of "live TV" viewers to drop almost directly as people born in 1975 and earlier age and drop off the end.

        In other words, watching "live tv" is largely an old person's pastime. What I choose to call "the TV tray generation".[1] And it's dying out.

        [1] Yes, I know 45 to 85 or thereabouts can arguably be called two generations. Work with me here.

        See, I think the question's wording is going to alter the calculus in one form or another.

        I've got more friends who will actively sit-down-and-expressly-watch a TV show on Netflix than they will watch it on the actual cable channel when it broadcasts. At the same time, many of those same people leave NCIS reruns or HGTV running in the background just to add a little noise to their apartment. I'm not saying the TV tray generation didn't do passive TV watching at all, but I think the lack of both streaming services as an alternative and internet services competing for attention (as well as generally-better radio content for 'apartment noise') factors in pretty heavily. I think it's similarly possible that Boomers and X-ers might be more willing to call apartment noise "TV watching", while millennials and Gen-Z might limit that term only to sitting down and explicitly watching a particular show.

        I think you have a point, and this is difficult to accurately categorize. I've seen examples of leaving the TV on for "background noise", so you're on to something there. (I personally hate this -- if I'm going to watch TV I'll sit down and watch it -- I saw Lion (2016) last night, and Please Stand By (2017) a week ago, otherwise haven't seen much of anything... oh, and one time-shifted episode of The Expanse around Tuesday (I'm way behind). And then I'll get up and turn it off and do something else, be

    • The most recent economic recovery hasn't resulted in a lot of wage growth. Thus economic circumstances have forced a lot of late Xers and millennials to move back in with parents, exposing them to a baby boomer's TV tray habits.

  • Even when I do watch TV it is very rarely live. Usually I watch off my DVR, after the fact so I can FF thru the commercials.

  • I can watch exactly the content I want on any number of streaming services for around $50 bucks a month total (assuming I want to subscribe to them all at once). I don't care for sports so the cable tv industry can bite me. Of course, they own the wires so they've been hosing me on my Internet to make up for it though. Hopefully we'll get some pro-consumer congress critters in during the mid terms and they'll have to back off on that crap though.
  • Have you tried really watching a complete show on a traditional US broadcast channel lately? It's not only the ad breaks, there's a terror of logos and banners running over the content. This is fine if you have the TV blaring in the background while you play with your iPad, but useless if you really want to watch the show. Netflix has none of that, is cheap and has decent programming. No wonder that people prefer to watch that instead of broadcast TV, at least for anything that's not a live event.

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