In contrast, TV viewing habits—which are still significant among this generation—are declining. Last year, 60.2 million Gen Xers in the US watched live or recorded video on a television set at least monthly. This year, 58.8 million Gen Xers have done so, and we expect even fewer to do so (57.8 million) next year.
"Gen Xers’ adoption of subscription OTT services and smart TVs have really taken off over the past few years," said senior forecasting analyst Chris Bendtsen. "These trends haven’t necessarily added a whole lot to the generation’s digital video audience size overall, but subscription services and smart TVs have affected the number of traditional TV viewers in this age group."
"Millennials aren’t the only ones cutting the cord, and over the next few years the gap in the number of traditional TV vs. digital video viewers will slowly close as some Gen Xers quit cable and satellite in favor of OTT," he added.
Viewing habits among this group aren't very much different from other generations. A survey MullenLowe MediaHub conducted earlier this year found that Netflix, YouTube and Hulu were their top 3 favorite video content providers.