SAN FRANCISCO – Young people refrain from watching TV nowadays, instead preferring to watch online videos, according to executives at internet-based entertainment channels.
Millennials and their successors are shunning old-school television in favor of watching what they want whenever they wish on Google-owned YouTube and other video platforms like Dailymotion or Facebook.
“Young people don’t really watch TV any more; they watch online videos that are shorter and more talent-driven,” says Fabienne Fourquet, a former executive at A&E Television and France’s Canal+ who now heads the multichannel network 2btube.
“They don’t want to be Hollywood stars when they grow up, they want to be YouTubers. There is this whole other world.”
The new multichannel networks, or MCNs, are talent agents of sorts for creators of videos shared online.
They help creators, often referred to as YouTubers, with video production and promotion along with finding partners or sponsors in return for a percentage of revenue.
Fourquet said popular subjects include music, comedy, sports, video games, fashion and beauty.
She noted that three-quarters of her viewers were younger than 34 years of age, and half were under 25. “There are very few of us old people,” Fourquet quipped.
