To the question of what we see today, the usual thing until not so long ago was to ask what they put on TV. The television prime time marked the leisure routines and the key moment of the fashion series was, precisely, when the episode was released on the screen.
Possibly, you just saw too many ads and it was a little late, but there was little you could do if you did not want to eat the spoilers on duty the next day at work or in the study center. This all seems a bit old now, but it was the default routine until not too long ago.
Now prime time has been in crisis for years and the agenda is set by streaming. In fact, a study has just confirmed that we no longer wonder what they see on TV. Nothing further. The cultural change has already occurred. The main conclusion of the latest Decoding the Default study , prepared by Hub Entertainment Research, is that streaming is already the source of access to content by default.
That is, consumers go first to what they have on demand when they decide to sit down and watch content. It was something that almost seemed to be expected, but that the study turns into an unquestionable truth. Streaming services are no longer a complement that offers us content, but where we go directly to look for it. We don’t watch TV and we don’t get tired of watching your grill. Thus, for more than half of those surveyed, what they see by default on their TV is a streaming service.
As explained in Advanded Television , the list includes VoD services like Netflix, AVoD like PlutoTV (which, of course, also has linear channels) or services like YouTube. Be that as it may, these services have cannibalized the space that for decades had been for television and it does so by raising and widening the difference with television networks. In the latest study, they are 55%, five points more than in 2020 and 16 points more than those who have TV by default.
A generational clash
Has the usual television all lost? Not exactly, there is a significant generation gap. Among consumers aged 18 to 34, only 1 in 10 goes first to linear TV. However, even among those viewers who have television as their first option, this is not queen. Those who turn on linear TV first may not necessarily do so for entertainment (it is the source of news) and when they want to entertain themselves, television networks compete with an increasing variety of elements also for those users.
The conclusion that can be drawn from all this data, therefore, is that traditional television should not cling to the past and should not artificially try to maintain the techniques and positions of 5 years ago. The world has changed, it has changed a lot, and its leadership position has fallen. They must adapt to the consumers of the streaming age and their new habits of access to content. Your future profitability – and even present – is at stake.