Online Video Consumption Continues To Rise, Even Among Older Adults

For years now, the online video masses and professionals have known they’re part of something ground-breaking, something that will change the way people consume media. Recently, two studies have come along to prove these beliefs are on the right track.

The first evidence in favor of online video consumption comes from a survey conducted by RBC Capital Markets of 1007 Americans. Quartz reported on the survey, noting several expected statistics. For example, YouTube, Netflix, and Amazon have only continued to grow in popularity, while traditional cable networks like NBC, ABC, and CBS have all steadily lost viewers on their sites (likely to the first three companies mentioned). And the most dramatic loss was with Redbox.com, who lost 50% of its viewership and now only accounts for 8% of websites used for watching movie and TV content.

Second, more support for online video was revealed by the New York Times

, who pulled stats from a yet-to-be-released Nielsen report proving older adults are starting to spend more time with digital video. Last year, adults ages 50 to 64 watched an average of 11 minutes a day, but this year, they watched 19. These numbers coincide with the fact that these same adults are cutting back about six minutes of time spent in front of their television sets. While this is only a 2% decrease overall, it indicates a growing trend that older adults are looking elsewhere for entertainment and content options, just like younger consumers have done for a while now.

None of this may surprise you, since you’re obviously familiar with online video (otherwise you wouldn’t be reading a site solely dedicated to it). But the future trajectory of online video is no less fascinating to those “in the know”; if anything, it’s just more verification of the predictions stating online video would become bigger than many people could imagine.