Young Viewers Skipping Local Broadcast TV News

Getting young adults to watch television news has long been a challenge.

But in the past, news directors and station executives could wait until the youngsters got a job, bought a house, got married and had children. Eventually, they’d tune in.

But, reports the Indianapolis Business Journal, with the growth of the digital world and the explosion of mobile technology, that “traditional maturation process in terms of consuming TV news has been interrupted,” said Bruce Bryant, president of locally based Promotus Advertising.

Source: Nielsen IBJ Graphic

While TV news has seen audience declines across many age categories, the biggest losses are with younger viewers.  The percentage losses outpace those in the 35-54 and 55-plus age groups—and in some time slots, the percentage decline is twice as steep.

Research shows that young people today are at least as interested as previous generations were in consuming news.

In a recent study by the Media Insight Project, a collaboration between the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and the American Press Institute, 85% of millennials said they keep up with the news and 69% said they consume news daily.

“The stereotype of millennials not being interested in news doesn’t stand,” said Jennifer Benz, principal research scientist and deputy director of the AP-NORC Center at the University of Chicago. “Data shows the opposite. Millennials are interested in the news and across several measures. Millennials are tuned in.”

The bad news for TV executives is, young people aren’t getting that news through their TVs.

A recent study by Deloitte found that people age 14 to 30 spend only 40% of their media-consumption time (including, but not limited to, news) watching television. Meanwhile, Generation Xers use a TV for 70% of media viewing, and baby boomers consume media from a TV almost 80% of the time.

Almost half of adults 22 to 45 years old are watching absolutely no content on traditional TV platforms, according to a new study by Omnicom Media Group agency Hearts & Science.

According to the Media Insight Project research, 83% of millennials are consuming news through YouTube and 50% through Instagram, both formats that just a decade ago were non-factors in generating news.

Advertising sold during local TV newscasts has historically made up 40% to 70% of a station’s revenue, because the station controls all the ad inventory and keeps all the revenue. Much of the revenue from ads run during network or syndicated programming goes to the network or syndicator.