Study: Young Millennials Consume OTT Rather Than Broadcast Content

A new study on the media consumption and content discovery habits of young Millennials -- 18- to-26-year-olds -- found the most common way for them to consume TV content (71%) is over-the-top TV (OTT) platforms, with one in two watching entertainment exclusively on desktop or mobile devices.

According to MediaPost, the study, by creative agency Anatomy, finds this demo's awareness of broadcast and OTT brands is poor.

Other study findings include:

• 58% of young Millennials learn about new programming directly through friends and family or on social media. They are less likely to recall advertising in discovering new TV programs.
• Netflix yielded the highest brand awareness scores in comparison to other OTT platforms and broadcast networks, with 65% of young Millennials matching Netflix programs to the Netflix brand. In contrast, only 31% of young Millennials matched ABC, CBS, and NBC programs to their respective brands. Amazon programs were only linked with Amazon 20% of the time, and Hulu came in at 15%.
• Brand awareness scores are positively correlated with screen touchpoint rankings. The study analyzed broadcast and OTT network brands across six dimensions (on-air promotion, Web, mobile, SEO, Facebook, and digital ads) in order to rank each brand’s performance. Netflix yielded the highest screen touchpoint ranking and brand awareness score.
• Facebook engagement is strongly correlated with higher brand awareness scoresamong broadcast networks and OTT platforms. Higher Facebook engagement on branded posts strongly correlated with higher brand awareness scores.
• The 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. ET time frame generates 236% more engagements on Facebook than other publishing windows. On average, posts published during this window generated twice as much engagement than posts published at other times of day.