Biggest millennial trends

If anything, the longer-term trends may be more ominous. The electorate is beginning its most profound generational transition since the early 1980s, when Baby Boomers became the largest voting bloc, dislodging the Greatest Generation of Americans, who came of age during the Depression and World War II.

Trump is eroding the Republican Partys position with younger voters at precisely the same time as the massively diverse Millennials and Generation Z are poised to become the largest voting bloc in the electorate, as new research released this week shows.

Media and entertainment companies may also be competing for a fixed amount of entertainment spending. We do not see those surveyed spending more money on subscriptions, and many report fatigue with having to manage multiple subscriptions to get the content they want, and frustrations with rising subscription prices. The median household annual income in the United States is about US80,000 and is only now rebounding from COVID-19 pandemic declines that began in 2020.4 At the same time, consumer prices have climbed for most goods.5 In Deloittes January 2025 ConsumerSignals survey, about half of US households say they have no money left over at the end of the month after meeting their expenses.6 This can shift the household calculus to prioritize spending on essentials over discretionary entertainment. Twenty years ago, many households may have considered pay TV an essential cost. Since then, the number of digital entertainment options has grown significantly, but the amount of time and money available for it have not. This has enabled greater consumer choice, more competition, and more fragmentation.

Older generations are more likely to maintain cable or satellite TV subscriptions, but 23 of Generation Z and 18 of millennial cable subscribers intend to terminate their subscriptions within the next 12 months, compared to only 8 of boomers.

A similar tension seems to exist with streaming video services, which have subscription costs that may outweigh their perceived value. Fifty-three percent of consumers surveyed say their SVOD subscriptions are the paid media and entertainment services they use most frequently. However, 41 percent of consumers overall say the content available on SVOD isnt worth the price, up five percentage points from our 2024 report.14 At the same time, roughly half (47) of consumers say they pay too much for the streaming services they use, suggesting there is an imbalance between cost and perceived value. Indeed, while the average number of paid SVOD services has remained the same, at four per subscribing household, the overall cost subscribers surveyed say they pay has gone up 13 in the past year, from an average of 61 per month to 69. Gen Z and millennials, with an average of 5 paid SVOD services, have seen a 20 increase (figure 3).

Although cable and satellite subscriptions are falling, and live-streaming TV subscriptions appear stagnant, some in younger generations still show interest in live programming: Forty-three percent of Gen Z and millennials surveyed indicate a willingness to pay more for streaming video subscriptions that include access to live sports, although their engagement with live content remains to be seen. When asked about the types of content they spend the most time watching on SVOD, 27 of consumers said live sports, and just 8 said live events like music concerts. This may be due to a lack of options for those categories on SVOD, along with the ability to watch this content in other places: a third of Gen Z respondents say they dont subscribe to an SVOD service to watch sports because they watch the clips and highlights on social media.

Cable and satellite television7remain significant players in media and entertainment, though subscriptions continue to decline. We found that 49 of consumers surveyed currently have a cable or satellite TV subscription, down from 63 three years ago.8 The primary reasons subscribers report paying for these services are to watch live news (43) and sports (41). However, the market continues to fall, likely because SVOD services now offer more live sports options, and social media provides free sports clips and news recaps.

That prospect presents both a near- and long-term danger for the GOP. The immediate problem is that polls nationally and in key swing states show Joe Biden positioned to significantly expand on Hillary Clintons margin among younger voters, even as many more of them are signaling they intend to vote than did in 2016.