TV Viewership Declines Across All Demos

Traditional viewership for long-form video content, such as movies and television on a TV screen, has declined over the past year -- and not just with young viewers. In a new survey, Accenture says there was a 13 percent drop worldwide and an 11 percent decline in the United States. Even looking at live TV viewing -- specifically at sports programming -- there have been cutbacks in usages on the traditional TV screen, 10 percent globally and 9 percent in the US. Virtually all age brackets witnessed declines worldwide. Those 55 and older have seen a 6 percent cutback for movie/TV show content on the big screen and a 1 percent drop in sports programming.

That said, younger viewers -- 14- to-17-year-olds -- have seen a steeper declines, down 33 percent for movies/TV shows worldwide and 26 percent for sports TV content. Eighteen- to-34-year-old viewers have pulled back 14 percent for movies/TV and 12 percent for sports programming; those 35-to-54 gave up movies/TV by 11 percent and for sports, 9 percent. Accenture says 89 percent of consumers watch long-form video on connected devices. But this isn’t entirely good news. More than half -- 51 percent -- say watching online video was a poor experience due to Internet services. Some 42 percent complained of too much advertising and 33 percent about buffering of video -- the time it takes for video to start playing. Thirty-three percent said there was a loss of sound or distortions during play.