A report from Parks Associates has revealed the full extent to which younger viewers are driving the uptake of over-the-top (OTT) services, in particular over multiple devices.

The analyst's Trends in Content Licensing report — which analyses television and movie licensing trends and the impact of multiscreen, time-shifting and the demand for exclusive content — found that pay-TV penetration fundamentally remains fairly steady at around 85% of all US broadband households and even remains high among millennials, but at the same time, nearly 40% in the latter age group consider online video the most important source for content.

Parks Associates noted that, contrary to other recent reports, the cord-cutting threat hasn't materialised for pay-TV providers because consumers find the experience was too fragmented to get the content they want. This finding, it asserted, underscored the important role of content in retaining subscribers.

"As consumers diversify their viewing resources, the licensing process becomes more complex," commented Glenn Hower, research analyst, Parks Associates. "The Supreme Court case in ABC v Aereo could drastically reshape the licensing environment for retransmission. A win by Aereo may set legal precedent for a method to rebroadcast without compensation ... From carriage fee battles between operators and networks to uncertainty in advertising dollars for multiscreen video, the market is experiencing growing pains."

From the article, "Young viewers key in driving OTT market" by Joseph O'Halloran.