I have written about this -- and have counseled anyone who would listen -- over and over again for the past year. But, only now is it sinking in at a mass scale, because the statistics to this effect are undeniable. Here are some of the latest "must read" stats from Deloitte:
(1) Millennials now watch more TV shows (not just YouTube videos!) on mobile devices than on the traditional TV box -- 57% of their viewing behavior is on the small screen -- their first screen;
(2) 25% of these Millennials outright cancelled their pay-TV services in the past 12 months or haven't had one for over one year (that's why Cablevision's CEO, in a remarkable watershed announcement just last week, expressly marketed new "cord cutter" and "cord never" packages and told the Street that it considers itself to be a "connectivity" company (rather than a content/programming company);
(3) 72% of these Millennials indicated that streaming video is the most important way for them to view video (including television programming).
Here's one media executive who fully "gets" this -- and recently prodded other media executives at MIP to embrace and act upon this new reality -- Eric Scherer, Director of Future Media at French broadcaster France Televisions. Here are some choice quotes from his speech at MIP:
"The TV industry will have to work on a mobile-first strategy. Not a digital-first strategy, but a mobile-first strategy, because mobile is now the first screen, and it's taking time away from the TV."
"They [the millennials] are always mobile, they are always social, they are always interactive ... and it is more and more live ...".
"The young people will not come back to the TV screen -- at least the major TV screen that we knew for the last 40 years."
In commenting about multi-channel networks (MCNs) -- most of whom increasingly consider themselves to be multi-platform networks (MPNs) -- Scherer said, "These are the kids now ruling the entertainment, and it's just the beginning of it. Again, new grammar, new syntax, new vocabulary."
Amen to that Eric. Amen.
Let's meet up in June at Live Earth (expect my separate Forbes article about Live Earth soon) in Paris and look back at how much more things have changed in just the couple months from this point.
Because they will ....