More People Now Prefer Streaming Than Watching Live TV
If only the TV ratings system could keep up with how people actually watch shows nowadays. A new survey from Deloitte (via Variety) shows that video-streaming services have surpassed live programming as the preferred viewing method. Their study found that about 56 percent of surveyed viewers now stream movies on a monthly basis, and 53 percent stream TV shows -- as compared with 45 percent who prefer to watch live TV.
There's a major age gap within the results, and it shows that the youngest of those surveyed are the most likely to use streaming services. That's not exactly a surprise, but it doesn't bode well for the future of pay TV. Here's how they broke it down:
• "Trailing Millennials" (ages 14-25) - 72 percent named streaming video as one of the most valuable services, with 58 percent saying the same for pay TV. Also, Variety relayed, 25 percent of these Trailing Millennials either canceled their pay-TV services in the last year or haven't had pay TV for more than a year, compared with 16 percent of overall respondents.
• Generation X (32-48) - 80 percent picked pay TV vs 47 percent for streaming
• Baby Boomers - 89 percent picked pay TV vs 43 percent for streaming.
Read more of the results here. The survey only included 2,076 people, but it does seem to represent the tide that is turning away from pay TV. What does this mean for the future of the industry?