Following industry reports that indicate millennials spend 54 per cent of their TV viewing time streaming content rather than watching traditional live programming, the 2016 Millennials at the Gate report from creative advertising agency Anatomy Media looking at the streaming and piracy behaviours of young (18-24) adults, shows two key streaming habits should be of major concern to video publishers.

“Our study looked at young millennial viewing habits. It’s important for publishers to understand the behaviour of this population because this cohort forms the cutting edge of the change that is disrupting their business models,” said Gabriella Mirabelli, CEO, Anatomy. “As this population ages they will not adopt regressive technology, but rather their behaviours will migrate up and down the demographic spectrum. Looking at this group’s behaviours allows video publishers to look into the future in order to strategise and plan how to meet the viewership challenges – and potential revenue loss – they will be facing.”

Key millennial viewership trends highlighted in the study include:

• Sixty-nine per cent of young millennials use at least one method of piracy (download, stream or mobile) and survey results show that as a group their attitude is that piracy is acceptable. In fact, 24 per cent of those surveyed believe that both downloading and streaming piracy are legal.
• Sixty-one per cent of young millennials who stream content used a shared password or cable log-in. Extended economic dependence on the childhood home is correlated to sharing passwords, but it is notable that the behaviour continues even when the individual no longer shares a physical home with their parent. While streaming services enforce simultaneous stream policies, they do not appear to be tracking unique users and are thus under reporting unique users and missing out on a large amount of subscription revenue.

Categories: Articles, Consumer Behaviour, Piracy, Research