Study Hints Kids Are Future Cord-Cutters

The television industry has been scrambling to stave off the pressure it feels from services like Netflix and the subscribers it is losing to them. Its efforts may prove to be in vain, however, at least according to a recent study. Miner & Co. Studio conducted research and has found that 57-percent of kids prefer watching videos on their tablet or smartphone rather than on a television. In addition, a common parental discipline might be driving kids further away from television, causing them to associate it with punishment.

The study gathered responses from 800 parents, and found that almost half of them take away their kids' mobile devices as a punishment. This forces the kids to watch television in the absence of their phone, and so over time those kids tend to associate watching TV with being punished.

One kid as part of the research laid it all out, saying that "TV sucks", and others indicated that their mobile devices were more important than many other things, including a television — many chose their tablet over getting a dessert, for example.

This follows in line with trends we've seen in other research reports, and it is bad news for the future of the television industry — while rolling out incentives to the current spat of paying consumers who grew up watching TVs will work to a degree, it will be hard to convince these now-kids to switch their consumption habits when they themselves become adults.

SOURCE: AdAge