What millennials and Gen Xers have in common when it comes to watching TV — and how they are different

pulse

September 12, 2017 1:37 PM

Rotten Tomatoes recently conducted a survey for Business Insider of over 7500 television viewers from ages 18-55+ to determine their viewing habits.

Millennials and Gen X can agree on at least one thing: they love "Game of Thrones."

Rotten Tomatoes recently conducted a survey for Business Insider of over 7,500 television viewers to determine their viewing habits.

As video becomes more accessible and audiences are presented with more ways than ever to consume it, Rotten Tomatoes found some surprising similarities and differences between millennials (18-34) and Gen X (34-54).

Here's everything you should know about how millennials and Gen X watch TV:

Both generations named "Game of Thrones" their favorite TV show over the past 20 years, and their favorite current TV show.

Both generations agree that Netflix has the best overall shows.

89% of millennials say they watch most of their "TV" on Netflix versus live TV. 78% of Gen X say the same. (This includes traditional TV shows Netflix has rights to, like "Breaking Bad.")

More Gen X viewers watch TV shows produced by networks, while nearly half of Millennials (48%) watch Netflix original shows.

44% of millennials surveyed say they watch 1-2 hours of TV a day, and 38% say they watch 3-5 hours a day.

Of the Gen X participants, 42% watch 1-2 hours a day, and 40% watch 3-5 hours a day.

Both millennials and Gen X mainly watch shows based on referrals from family and friends (74%/63% respectively) or overall buzz about the show (63%/54% respectively).

After referrals and buzz, millennials look for things they see on social media (43%), while Gen X looks to ads they see on TV (39%).

Millennials aren't the only ones who binge-watch. Both generations said that they do a combination of binge-watching and weekly watching of TV shows.

52% of Gen X prefers to watch a show on a weekly basis, while 62% of millennials prefer to binge.

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