Main news source by age, online vs. television

Video usage patterns are shifting from the television screen to the PC, tablet and mobile screens. Publishers and broadcasters are recognizing the trends and are building high-engagement video content packages for their enthusiastic audiences. Among the most promising strategies for publishers and broadcasters is producing more video for a seemingly insatiable digital audience, and then monetizing it through higher-CPM advertising.

In particular, younger audiences are driving the transition of video to the smaller screen. According to the Reuters Institute’s “Digital News Report 2013,” television viewership in the 18- to 24-year-old and the 25- to 34-year-old categories is half of the viewership of those 55+. Conversely, the younger age groups make up the lion’s share of usership online, and represent almost 2.5 times that of those 55+. The study was conducted in the United States, Brazil, Japan and six European countries.

Gfk corroborates the findings in the United Kingdom, saying 16- to 24-year-olds are the primary users of online news video, despite having an overall lower engagement with news, in general, compared to their older counterparts.

The data set is a part of a collection of 500 revenue and usership trends in mobile, social, Internet, tablet, video and other digital categories, published in the 200-page Global Digital Media Trendbook 2013. GDMT, in its eight year, is to be published by World Newsmedia Network, a not-for-profit media research company, in September 2013. To subscribe to the PDF report and/or the tablet edition, go to www.wnmn.org, or contact mstone@wnmn.org.