Nielsen released its quarterly metrics report Thursday, and it showed that young adults are quickly moving away from watching television through standard means.
While television viewership has been in decline in recent years, the waning audience was more pronounced in 2015. Americans aged 18-34 nearly watched one hour less of television compared to the year before, according to Nielsen. Conversely, the same age group used smart phones for viewing media by one hour more in 2015 compared to 2014.
These changes aren’t nearly as distinct when surveying other age groups.
Millennials, the name for the group of Americans aged 18-34, were much less likely to watch television than other age groups. Just 76 percent of Millenials watch TV, compared to 89 percent for people aged 35-49, and 93 percent for people aged over 50.
Millenials also were much more likely to use TV-connected devices, such as game consoles, DVD players, Apple TV and Roku than other age groups. People aged 18-34 watched on average 5:53 of content on such devices.
Nielsen also noted the dramatic difference in viewing habits between races. Black Americans spent on average 47 hours a week watching television, compared to 32.5 hours for the average American. Hispanics and Asian-Americans watched much less television. Hispanics watched 27 hours a week, and Asian-Americans watched 17 hours.
