Older Adults and Their Post-COVID Media Habits

While older adults 55plus are often slower to adopt newer technologies and services the COVID19 pandemic accelerated adoption among all groups This along with the wideranging financial pressures older adults are feeling drew Broadbeam Media39s focus for our most recent proprietary study on older Americans and their media habitsLinear TV Still On Top For SeniorsLinear TV still has the highest reach of any platform among people 55plus In this study 84 of this group had watched broadcast or cable TV in the last month Only 80 watched any streaming service in the same time period topped by Netflix at 50 This means linear TV still far outpaces any other individual adsupported media radio was closest at 62Linear TV also has streaming services beat when it comes to time spent watching amp8212 68 of linear TV viewers said they watched multiple hours a day compared to only 24 of Netflix subscribes that said they watch multiple hours of the service a day In fact only 31 of older adults who watched streaming services said there was any streaming service they watched for multiple hours a day More likely they watched a given streaming services a few hours a week or lessStreaming SVODs And The Rise Of AVODsStreaming adoption among seniors has increased in the last few years While we are at 80 penetration among our 55plus sample individual service adoption is still much lower than for younger age groups The slower pace of adoption among older adult is especially clear when looking at the low usage rates for the newer services like HBO Max Paramount and DiscoveryOverall Netflix has the widest reach of the streaming services 50 followed by Amazon Prime Video 45 which has been able to gain subscribers in this group with its additional benefits Hulu has the third largest reach 29 with 70 of these viewers watching with ads Free streaming channels the Roku Channel and Tubi were fourth and fifth 28 and 26 respectivelyLooking specifically at hybrid SVODAVODs like Hulu or Peacock 75 of people subscribed to one or more of these services were getting ads on at least one of them Among cord cutters specifically the percentage exposed to ads is up to 83 Hybrid SVODAVODs can be a useful way to get in front of seniors that are no longer accessible through linearLinear TV Replacement A Matter Of PriceWhile only 16 of our sample had cut the cord there were some significant trends among this group Of note these seniors watch more ads in order to pay less Along with being more likely to have ads on their hybrid SVODs these cord cutters were significantly more likely to use many of the AVODs that offer free TV replacement include Crackle Pluto Vudu and Vizio WatchFree small sampleIt39s especially clear that these free streaming channels are serving as TV replacement when looking at the genres older adults are watching there Unlike the paid SVODs that audiences look to for newly released content that has taken over primetime 60 of the free AVOD audience over 55 watch classic comedies and dramas or movies on these stations and watching at a comparative high rate during the daytime This viewership easily takes the space of linear TV39s daytime39s syndicated programming to which this audience was usedConclusionWhile older adults are generally slower to adopt new technologies it39s important to remember that this group is not homogenous As some seniors hold on to linear like an old habit others have long been expanding their media options and will continue to do so The streaming landscape offers a growing number of alternatives to the passive view experience of TV channelsMethodology Broadbeam Media surveyed 1000 people over the age of 55 about their lifestyle along with their video and audio usage and adoption The survey was fielded from June 30 to July 6 2022This article was originally published at TVNewsCheck on September 29 2022 and written by Tess Erickson Director Strategy and ResearchClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet

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