Hub: Social Media, Gaming, Online Videos Downsize TV Viewing Time
February 8, 2022
Social media activities, including online video and separately, video games, continue to eat away at the time consumers spend watching television. New data from Hub Research found that TV and movies account for 48% of all the time consumers say they spend with screen-based entertainment. That’s down 5% from a year ago, and down 11% from 2019.
The stats come from a December 2021 survey of 2,179 U.S. consumers aged 13-74, who watch at least one hour of TV per week and have broadband service.
Notably, the older the survey respondent, the more time s/he spends in front of the TV. At just 35 years old, Hub saw a significant shift toward the consumption of TV and movies as the primary source of entertainment time. Among respondents over the age of 35, about 60% of their time was spent watching TV and movies.
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“When it comes to sources of screen-based entertainment, younger and older consumers could not be more different,” Peter Fondulas, Hub principal and co-author of the study, said in a statement.
The analyst wonders whether today’s young consumers will always prioritize non-traditional content — or whether they’ll start to resemble older consumers as they grow older.
“Our prediction is that their behaviors are so ingrained that non-traditional content will always be a significant part of their entertainment consumption,” Fondulas said.