A lot of us have already declared our allegiance to Netflix, Hulu and other streaming services, so it seems strange that streaming is still regarded as new sometimes. Some publications and commentators like to say only millennials love streaming services, but data from TXN, a consumer spending analytics app, disagrees. The truth is that cord-cutters, those who favor streaming over cable, come from many generations.
Out of people born in the 1940s - 1980s, Gen Xers and Baby Boomers, 37% rely on streaming as their only source of TV entertainment. Millennials are ahead, at 49% relying solely on streaming, but the gap isn’t as large as it may be assumed. Looking at it another way, 66% of Gen Xers and 60% of Baby Boomers use some form of streaming service, compared to 71% of millennials. TXN’s findings suggest that streaming companies receive an even spread of customers, no matter the generation.
To get this data, TXN analyzed purchases made at major streaming and/or cable and satellite companies by the users of their app. Included in this data set are Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Video On-Demand, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, DirecTV, and DISH Network. TXN then organized purchases by customer to find out if they used only cable, only streaming, or both. Using demographic information, TXN separated the users into age groups and generations.
When it first became an option, streaming seemed technologically complex compared with plain old cable and that may have alienated older generations. Now that streaming is more common, it's seen for the deal that it is: a low-cost cable alternative or supplement with content on par with traditional cable.
