The case of the missing Millennials

Viacom channels such as MTV, which broadcasts ‘Teen Wolf,’ accounted for a big chunk of Millennial ratings declines.

There are still Millennials watching traditional television.

But their numbers are dwindling fast, much faster than the networks want to admit and perhaps faster than even media people recognize.

A new report from MoffettNathanson, a research and investment company, finds that from July 2014 to June 2015 live-plus-seven-day-DVR playback ratings for the 11 biggest broadcast and cable companies plummeted by 14 percent among adults 18-34.

This group includes CBS, Disney, NBCUniversal and Viacom, the latter of which has taken the hardest hit, off 19 percent.

NBC fell by 18 percent, while Fox channels took the third-worst hit, down 17 percent.

Fourteen percent is a hefty drop in just one year.

By comparison, among adults 35-49, ratings declined just 7 percent in that time, and among all viewers over age 2, the drop was also only 7 percent.

MoffettNathanson undertook the study as part of a broader look at Viacom, which has seen viewership fall steeply at a number of its networks over the past two years.

But the viewership numbers for Millennials stand out as part of that greater study. They’re a reminder that younger people really do appear to be moving on to new forms of entertainment.

It’s not uncommon for young people to eschew a form of entertainment their parents enjoy, but they usually come around.

For example, teens and twentysomethings have never been big newspaper readers. But they typically become readers when they get older, own houses and have children and have higher-paying jobs. They then have an investment in the community, and they read the newspaper to keep up with local events.

It will be interesting then to see if this generational shift corrects itself as Millennials age. As they begin their families will they return to the living room couches their parents occupied in their years growing up?

Some researchers predict not.

Many younger Millennials grew up with connected devices, and these devices function quite well as their principal media channels. They don’t feel the need for traditional TV watched on traditional TV sets.

There’s no reason they’d change that behavior as they age.

Tags: broadcast, cable, fox, millennials, millennials tv, nbcu, tv millennials, viacom