38% of Teens Watch Netflix Every Day; More Than YouTube and Cable TV

Are we raising a generation of Netflix addicts?

According to a new study from research firm Piper Jaffray (which you can read here), Netflix not only dominates the streaming market overall, but it’s the clear winner when it comes to the daily video consumption of teens.

Nearly 40% of the 5,500 US teens surveyed said their daily dose of video content comes courtesy of the streaming giant, with Netflix catching a 38% share of the market. YouTube was second with 26%. But maybe the most important number was third place: cable TV at just a 23% share – a number that’s down significantly from this time last year. After cable, there’s a sharp drop off to Hulu at 4% and “all other streaming services” at 6%.

It’s worth noting that the “daily video consumption” market is fairly fragmented, at least when it comes to teens. That means opportunities are there for companies to enter the market.

With new live TV services from YouTube and Hulu on the way, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Netflix lose a little bit of their share to the competition, but they’re likely to stay on top of the streaming industry for some time.

Of course, the question is, does “live” television even matter to today’s teens? Even though cord cutting is on the rise, teens have grown up with on demand content – no cord to cut. They’re the “cord nevers”. They’re used to watching content on their own schedule — whenever they want, wherever they want. Appointment viewing just isn’t something most teens are interested in. YouTube has over 1 billion users worldwide, and presently reaches more users in the 18 to 24 demographic than any cable TV network – by a wide margin.

This study is nothing but good news for Netflix though. The young demographic is always a coveted one, but here’s the important part: if Netflix is capturing the youth market now, those teens will eventually turn in to paying subscribers, securing Netflix’s place as the leader for many years to come.