Watch Out, Comcast: Millennial Men Watch Less TV Than Gen Xers, Baby Boomers

Millennial males have less use for traditional TV than older consumers, a Nielsen report says. Reuters

Dude, where’s your TV? In a report that further confirms the growing trend of cord-cutters and cord-nevers among younger consumers, Nielsen on Wednesday said millennial males are watching far less traditional television than their older counterparts.

The study of second-quarter viewing habits revealed that male millennials watch an average of 20 hours of traditional TV each week, compared to 28 hours for male Gen Xers and 38 hours for male baby boomers. At the same time, millennial males (those born in the 1980s or '90s) watch more online video than any other demographic group, about 2.25 hours a week, according to the report.

Viewing habits vary considerably by racial group. Asian-American male millennials spend about half the amount of time in front of traditional TV screens than the demographic as a whole -- 11.5 hours a week. Hispanic millennial males watch about 19 hours of traditional TV a week, while African-American millennial males watch 33 hours a week, in addition to three hours watching online videos.
As the Nielsen report notes, millennials are the most racially diverse group in American history, with 43 percent identifying as non-white.

The report, which used viewing data compiled from late March through late June 2014, defines “traditional TV” as television watched live or via a playback device such as a DVR or DVD player. The new research follows a similar Nielsen report -- released earlier this month -- showing that traditional TV viewership is in decline across the board. The average TV viewer watched 141 hours a month in the third quarter, compared with 147 for the same period last year. That same report showed that watching videos on computers, smartphones and through streaming services like Netflix are all on the rise.

The cord-cutting trend has cable giants like Comcast and Time Warner pouring more resources into their broadband businesses, as conventional pay-TV subscribers dwindle. It also has marketers and advertisers scrambling to tap the purchasing power of a growing demographic group that may never become habitual TV watchers in the conventional sense.

“Millennial males are, in theory, elusive creatures,” Nielsen wrote in the report. “They’re commonly thought of as cord-cutters who can’t be -- and don’t want to be -- reached.”

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