Millennials are surprisingly getting news from cable TV
Here’s a surprise news flash: Millennials are getting more of their news on cable TV.
In the first quarter, Fox News attracted the highest number of millennials — famously addicted to their smartphones — with 67,700 of those aged between 18 and 34 tuning in.
That’s up 250 percent from the same period two years ago, when just 27,100 millennial viewers were glued to Fox News, according to Nielsen data obtained by The Post.
CNN isn’t far behind. It grew millennial viewership to 62,900 from 34,800 in 2015, while MSNBC just notched 35,900 in the first quarter versus 20,400 in the comparable period two years earlier.
To be sure, millennials are the first generation to grow up attached to their digital devices, and the latest cable-TV figures aren’t big numbers when compared with the hundreds of millions of log-ins that social networks like Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat notch each month.
Still, data show a surprising trend — namely, that all three news networks grew the number of young adults watching their broadcasts on both a one-year and two-year basis.
“It’s really the political climate,” says Billie Gold, director of programming research at Amplifi, a division of ad agency Dentsu Aegis Network. Millennials are “very socially conscious. They care about the environment and all the protests — they’re very concerned.”
Nonstop chaos in Washington, an investigation into Russian interference in the elections, wiretapping claims and allegations of fake news have made watching the news a nonstop reality show of epic proportions.
Ratings typically fall off a cliff after an election, but this year, the audiences have held up, Gold notes.
With the TV “upfronts” looming — a seasonal confab in which advertisers look to allocate $70 billion in annual budgets around the dial — growth in the ranks of young viewers is a welcome data point for news networks that typically skew older.
Millennials are a sought-after demographic for advertisers, even though they’re more likely to still live with their parents than at any time since 1880, according to Pew Research.
There are now 75.4 million millennials, who overtook baby boomers last year as the biggest segment of the US population.
The news segment is on fire. Fox News, CNN and MSNBC have been hitting record ratings at a time when both general cable and broadcast networks are struggling to hold on to their viewers.
In February, broadcast networks lost 11 percent of the commercial ratings in prime time while cable networks were off 10 percent, according to a study dubbed “Winter Is Here,” from independent research firm MoffettNathanson released on Wednesday. Just six networks of the top 25 cable outlets could boast of growth in viewership.
Anecdotally, several industry executives told The Post their grown-up kids are sitting down to watch the news with them in the evenings.
Digital destinations in the news category are gaining too, according to comScore.
“Millennials’ news consumption is heavier than the average digital news consumer ,” said Andrew Lipsman, comScore’s vice president of corporate marketing.