How Much Binge-Watching Did You Do This Week?

Credit: Deloitte Digital Democracy Survey, Eleventh Edition.

Binge-watching is reaching epic proportions among millennials and Generation Z, according to a new survey that examines the way Americans consume media across generations.

Deloitte’s Digital Democracy Survey found nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of Americans (up 3 percent from 2015) and nearly 90 percent of millennials and Gen Z have binge-watched video content. Almost 40 percent of millennials and Gen Z binge-watchers reported doing so weekly and say they watch six episodes on average in a single sitting.

The survey also found that social media has evolved well beyond “socializing” now that 84 percent of all Americans and more than 90 percent of Gen Z and millennials are on social networks. Over half of Gen Z and millennials use social networks to learn about new TV shows, citing it as more useful than TV commercials, and 70 percent have used social media to interact with corporate customer service in the last year; 71 percent of those who have used social media to resolve issues believe they will get a better company response because it’s public.

Other key findings from the survey include:

• Almost half (49 percent) of Americans and nearly 60 percent of generation Z (Gen Z), millennials, and Generation X (Gen X) subscribe to at least one paid streaming video service. However, the survey notes that despite the growth of paid streaming services, U.S. consumers spend more time streaming video via free services (40 percent) than paid streaming subscriptions (35 percent).

• Almost three-quarters of consumers across U.S. households still subscribe to cable or satellite TV but two-thirds of subscribers say they do so because it’s bundled with internet service.

• The device of choice for key demographics remains split; Gen Z and millennials spend about half their time watching TV shows and movies on devices other than a TV. Additionally, Gen X favors the TV by more than 60 percent, while 80 percent of the programming Baby Boomers watch is on the TV.

• Nearly all millennials (99 percent) and Gen Z multitask while watching TV, averaging four additional activities, such as texting, browsing the web, using social networks, reading email, and shopping online.

The 11th edition of the Digital Democracy Survey was fielded by an independent research firm Nov. 4–16, 2016 and employed an online methodology among 2,131 U.S. consumers. All data are weighted back to the most recent U.S. census to give a representative view of what consumers are doing.

To delve deeper into the Digital Democracy Survey, visit deloitte.com.

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