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Younger Millennials Don't Know What Networks Are Responsible For TV Shows, Unless It's Netflix (thenextweb.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the internet-killed-television dept.

According to a new report from consulting firm Anatomy Media, millennials aren't able to identify the networks responsible for some of the most popular television shows, unless they're created by Netflix. The report indicates that most viewers age 18-26 can't match television shows from ABC, NBC, FOX, CBS, or Disney to to their respective networks. The Next Web reports: This means Jessica Jones is more likely to resonate with millennials as Netflix original programming than Empire does as a Fox network show. 65-percent of the respondents were able to identify a Netflix show correctly, compared to only 31-percent able to do so for other networks' programming. It was even worse for Amazon -- only 20-percent of the young adults could match its shows correctly. The most coveted demographic in television marketing cares twice as much about Netflix as any other provider -- and nobody cares about Amazon's original programming. A different survey conducted by Fluent Insights asked 3,100 millennials about their television viewing habits: half said they watched television exclusively on mobile or desktop platforms.

9 of 185 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Pretty easy rule of thumb by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Informative

    There are only two networks: Netflix and The Pirate Bay.

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  2. Re:Meh-llennials... by Calydor · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Or maybe they just don't give a fuck, same as how the average joe probably can't accurately connect a given superhero to whether he or she is from Marvel or DC.

    Is the show good, yes or no? Does the show entertain me, yes or no? I don't f'ing care if it's ABC, Fox, CW or whatever if I like watching it.

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  3. Re:Pretty easy rule of thumb by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This, absolutely. It's not about millennials being too dumb to know about TV stations, and it's not just millennials either; I suspect this holds true for most cord-cutters out there. When those people watch series, it's either VOD on Netflix, or it's episodes they've pulled off TPB, some streaming site, or from Usenet via Sickbeard. Who wants to have to watch a show at a specific time of day, and be forced to watch a whole buch of crap commercials besides?

    I wonder about the different results for Amazon though, and I'd like to know what the results are for HBO original programming. The thing is, Netflix shows are very prominently branded at the start of the show. HBO does the same (does Amazon?). In contrast, most network content might show some vague little clip at the end of the show to indicate the producing channel; which people who downloaded the show might not even see.

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  4. Neither do I by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Informative

    Way past Millennial age here (GenXer, IIRC). It might be due to me living in a different country where the networks buy from other networks without taking care that they only buy from Fox, ABC or whoever else there is, but then again, I also don't know what networks bought what series. Why? Because it doesn't matter AT ALL.

    Why is that in any way important knowledge?

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    1. Re:Neither do I by squiggleslash · · Score: 5, Informative

      Well, yeah, being in a different country would mean you wouldn't know what US shows are associated with what US networks. OTOH, if you're (for example) British and you don't know that Eastenders is associated with the BBC, you'd be doing the same thing.

      The "Network" in this instance is (more or less) the TV channel you're tuning into to watch the TV show. For example, to watch "Saturday Night Live" you need to tune into the TV channel associated with NBC in your region, which at certain times of day even calls itself NBC. If you're wondering why it's a network, and "associated with", rather than just called NBC all the time, it has to do with the weird geographical set up of TV in the US, where every TV station is local, so to put out national content, TV stations associated themselves with one of five or six major networks.

      The reason why most people don't know what network a particular show is associated with is because we (all of us, not just millennials) don't do a lot of tuning in these days. We program our DVRs to record programs, and so only briefly find out that the program is associated with that network at the time we set up the recurring timer. We watch syndicated content - for example, TNT or USA rebroadcast shows from several years ago, with no indication of what network commissioned them. We watch shows on Netflix, Amazon, etc. Essentially, we no longer say "OK, it's time to tune the TV into channel 29, Gotham is just starting!"

      I felt like the headline was kinda patronizing Millennials, when all that's happened is the way we watch TV has changed.

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  5. content is all that matters by petes_PoV · · Score: 4, Insightful

    millennials aren't able to identify the networks responsible for some of the most popular television shows,

    Me neither. I have never taken the slightest interest in what channel a programme is on, who made it, who presents or acts in it.

    The only thing I am interested in is whether it is good or not. Why does anything else matter?

    --
    politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
  6. Re:Meh-llennials... by Joce640k · · Score: 4, Insightful

    We also don't care about the ever-growing list of company logos they put at the start of movies.

    Just start the movie, already. I don't give a flying fuck if it was made by Warner or MGM or whatever.

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  7. Re:Meh-llennials... by PsychoSlashDot · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Or maybe they just don't give a fuck, same as how the average joe probably can't accurately connect a given superhero to whether he or she is from Marvel or DC.

    Is the show good, yes or no? Does the show entertain me, yes or no? I don't f'ing care if it's ABC, Fox, CW or whatever if I like watching it.

    You are right.

    Put another way, branding doesn't matter as much as the marketing departments wish it did.

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  8. It's not just millennials by reboot246 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm 64 and I am in the same boat as millennials. Since I never watch live broadcast network television I have no idea what shows are on, much less which network produced them.

    I watch the news, movies and series on Netflix and Amazon Prime, and some documentaries from various sources. I watched Lost on Netflix, but I can't tell you which network it was originally on. Sitcoms? Haven't watched one in over a decade because they're all the same, with only the characters and situations changed. I don't care for mysteries or cop shows. There's very little good sci-fi being produced nowadays.

    The premiums (HBO, Showtime, Starz, etc) are producing much better series than ABC, NBC, or CBS. I liked True Blood, Black Sails, The Young Pope, Outlander, and now I'm into American Gods.