--- description: The cord-cutting continues for America's youth title: Millennials Are Abandoning Their TV Sets Faster Than Ever image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf41090fe25504f09/69877fb3428a9e2f79cc72f8/television.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Millennials Are Abandoning Their TV Sets Faster Than Ever by [Sam Frizell](/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Feb 18, 2015 1:07 PM CUT  Rear view of a couple watching tv Rear view of a couple watching tvGetty Images by [Sam Frizell](/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Feb 18, 2015 1:07 PM CUT Young people are ditching their television sets even faster than in previous years, [according to new data](http://nypost.com/2015/02/16/millenials-ditching-their-tv-sets-at-a-record-rate/ "undefined"), with traditional TV usage falling among viewers age 18-34 falling at twice the normal rate in the recent September to January season. A new Nielsen survey shows that traditional TV usage among millennial viewers tumbled 10.6% between September and January, the New York _Post_ reports. Since 2012, traditional TV usage had only been falling at about 4% a year from season to season. The sudden acceleration of young people dropping TV in favor of Netflix surprised many analysts. “The change in behavior is stunning. The use of streaming and smartphones just year-on-year is double-digit increases,” Alan Wurtzel, NBCUniversal’s audience research chief, told the _Post_. “I’ve never seen that kind of change in behavior.” In 2011, 21.7 million young adults were tuning in to their TV sets, but that figure fell to 17.8 million last month, a drop of almost 20%. That trend is likely to continue as more millennials turn to online video streaming from Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO GO and other sources. \[[_New York Post_](http://nypost.com/2015/02/16/millenials-ditching-their-tv-sets-at-a-record-rate/ "undefined")\] _Read next:_ [_This Millennial Paid Off $23,375 in Student Loans in Just 10 Months_](https://time.com/nextadvisor/loans/personal-loans/should-i-get-a-personal-loan/ "undefined") [_Listen to the most important stories of the day._](http://time.com/newsletter/the-brief/?sl%5Fautoplay=true&xid=spl-fullbrief-article "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3713134/millennials-tv-cord-cutting-cable/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3713134/millennials-tv-cord-cutting-cable/"},"headline":"Millennials Are Abandoning Their TV Sets Faster Than Ever","datePublished":"2015-02-18T13:07:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T04:30:18.132Z","description":"The cord-cutting continues for America's youth","url":"https://time.com/3713134/millennials-tv-cord-cutting-cable/","keywords":["Technology & Media"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf41090fe25504f09/69877fb3428a9e2f79cc72f8/television.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sam Frizell","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf41090fe25504f09/69877fb3428a9e2f79cc72f8/television.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"television","caption":"","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3713134/millennials-tv-cord-cutting-cable/","name":"Millennials Are Abandoning Their TV Sets Faster Than Ever"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Should You Cut the Cord on Cable?","description":"MONEY's Jake Davidson and Taylor Tepper debate whether paying for cable television is still worthwhile.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/pqmHwOaI/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-02-05T23:40:39.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/pqmHwOaI.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3713134/millennials-tv-cord-cutting-cable/","duration":"PT3M38S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3713134/millennials-tv-cord-cutting-cable/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```