Part
01
of four
Part
01
US Cable TV: Average Age
Our research found that the percentages of regular cable TV subscribers has steadily decreased across various age groups in the U.S. between 2014 and 2019. While we weren't able to calculate the average age of a cable TV subscriber in the U.S. for the specified years per reasons explained below, we were able to find the ages of cable TV subscribers for all but one of the requested years.
Findings
2014
- The following are the percentages of regular cable TV subscribers in 2014 in the U.S. by age group (noted in parentheses): 71% (18-24); 67% (25-34); 64% (35-49); 67% (50-59); and 87% (53+).
2015
- The following are the percentages of regular cable TV subscribers in 2015 in the U.S. by age group (noted in parentheses): 65% (18-29); 73% (30-49); and 83% (50+).
2016
- We could not find any applicable data for this year, which is explained in the research methodology section below.
2017
- The following are the percentages of regular cable TV subscribers in 2017 in the U.S. by age group (noted in parentheses): 31% (18-29); 52% (30-49); 70% (50-64); and 84% (65+).
2018
- The following are the percentages of regular cable TV subscribers in 2018 in the U.S. by age group (noted in parentheses): 73% (21-40) and 81% (53+).
2019
- The following are the percentages of regular cable TV subscribers in 2019 in the U.S. by age group (noted in parentheses): 45% (18-29) and 45% (30-44).
Your Research Team Applied The Following Strategy:
Though we ultimately weren't able to determine the average of cable TV subscribers (explained below), we began our research looking for such data by first finding statistics about such U.S. subscribers by age group. We found that data from a combination of credible sources, which included Statista, Pew Research, USA Today, and Business Insider. The reason we couldn't specifically calculate the average age of the regular cable TV subscriber for each year is because the sources (which were the best ones available, after conducting thorough research) didn't state the number of survey respondents per age group included as part of those surveys. Rather, those sources only stated the total number of survey participants, which wasn't applicable for calculating the average ages for purposes of our research. Accordingly, the data presented above was the clearest manner in which we could present the information that we found. We included all the applicable data that we found throughout our research in the "Findings" section above.
The only year we could not find data regarding the age of cable TV subscribers for was 2016, both in terms of average age and age groups. In fact, despite conducting thorough research, we did not come across any applicable information about regular cable TV subscribers by age in the U.S. for that year. We implemented three different approaches in searching for that information. First, we consulted numerous articles published by a combination of news and industry sources, such as Deloitte and PwC (among many others), to see if any of those articles mentioned cable subscriber data by age group. However, not one of the many articles we reviewed mentioned any such information whatsoever.
Second, we utilized the database source Statista, as that source had published such data for other years. However, Statista didn't have this data for 2016. As a third strategy, we tried to triangulate the number of subscribers by age group by looking at the numbers/percentages of U.S. consumers that unsubscribed from regular cable TV that year. While some of that data was available, it was not sufficient for us to conduct the triangulated calculations that would have been necessary. After looking for 2016 data in such a wide-ranging scope, we concluded that this information was not available.