GENERATIONAL TVide

AMERICA'S MEDIA AGE GROUPINGS

Happy Monday War & Peaceniks. Let’s divide and clarify.

America is extremely divided. For the purpose of this piece, by divided, I don’t mean politically, but rather by Media consumption - which in some ways can also explain our political divide as well. In short, when explaining America’s relationship to its Media, the best description is undoubtedly: It’s complicated.

Before you comprehend how differently we all consume Media, it’s important to understand the generational makeup of the country in which we live.

52% of Americans are under 40; 48% of us are over 40. It is crucial to understand a key factor in this demographic spread: Generations age. When many people hear this, often it’s as if they’re seeing fire for the first time. Millennials are not kids, they have kids. The eldest Millennials are now 43. The older end of Generation Z - the largest generation in the world - are 26. Generation A is turning 15.

So, when you look at demographic breakdowns for Media consumption, you must understand that the differences are not just demographic, they’re generational. And it’s even more important to know that as generations age (which they will continue to do), they will bring the Media habits with which they grew up along with them as they age. Watching traditional TV is not like drinking coffee, today’s 16 year old isn’t gonna suddenly “get a taste for it” when they turn 35.

One more thing before we dig into the various Media habits of America’s generations: it’s important to appreciate the difference between usage and daily usage. Just because someone uses a service, doesn’t mean they use it every day, and our emotional or utilitarian connection to a platform is quite different if we connect to it a few times a month versus every day of our lives.

With that said, let’s look across the generational divides at how North Americans say they use TV. Below is my analysis of recent data from GWI, Pew Research Center and PCH Media on the TV, Streaming, and Social Media habits of the various demographics and generations. (Recently, I wrote a similar report, with similar findings, on the generational Media habits in the UK, here.)

These are surveys, with self reported consumption. Therefore, I will contextualize these demographic breakdowns with usage data from various other sources.

Gen X and Boomers still watch a shit-ton of traditional TV, every day. However, while the majority of those over 55 do stream TV, the overwhelming majority do not stream as a daily part of their Media diet, and nearly half of our oldest North Americans still do not stream at all.

In the younger age groups, generational dynamics complicate demographics. In the next year, Millennials - the first generation raised with the internet - will enter the 45-54 year old cohort. Yep. That’s just math. You can already see how Americans who were teens when the first iPhone dropped affect the daily Media consumption of an entire demographic. Adults 45-54 watch far less traditional TV than those over 55, and twice as many stream 3+ hours of video daily. Still, given that the bulk of this demo are Gen X, we can see a big generational streaming divide, with 56% streaming less than an hour per day, and one quarter of this group who never stream.

As we age down through the generations, the data continues to get even interestinger…