No Linear Please, We're Millennial

Young men are truly lost to the traditional pay-TV ecosystem if recent research is to be believed. Several analysts found that cord-cutting reached new heights in 2016, and was being led by younger viewers eager to get rid of pay-TV's high cost, and device and contract restrictions. And young males have traditionally been early adopters of technology -- even more than millennial women, millennial men are the group most at risk. (See Why Cord-Cutting Continues.)

Recent announcements from NBCUniversal LLC and Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA) suggest that TV channels targeted at young male audiences have passed their sell-by date. Viacom's male-oriented Spike Network has been rebranded and will now offer more general interest fare, while NBCUniversal's Esquire Network will be going off the air after AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) dropped it from both U-verse and DirecTV channel line-ups in December. That's a loss of 25 million subscribers in one fell swoop.

Online advertising company Videology recent conducted a survey of US males between the ages of 18-34, and created a rather nifty infographic from the results. They found that 53% of millennial males had already cut the cord, and another 14% planned to in 2017. More than three out of every five prefer to stream movies than watch them via other channels, though opinions are more split when it comes to TV shows. Still, across all video entertainment (combining TV and movies), it is streaming that wins out for them -- so much so, 42% plan to buy a new digital device in 2017, to help their streaming experience.

— Aditya Kishore, Practice Leader, Video Transformation, Telco Transformation