A quick look at US media consumption habits in 2021

Marcus Evans

Senior Content Marketing Manager

Last updated on
April 7, 2023

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Table of contents

We’ve just launched our US Media Consumption Report for 2021, revealing more seismic shifts in what American eyes and ears are tuning into!

For brands trying to navigate the second coming of the ‘Roaring 20s’, a digital ad spend boom, and a general fatigue for bad news, our report points to a significant decrease in our desire to sit in front of a TV screen for prolonged periods of time.

The report delves into Americans’ habits across television, audio, news and social media, and its main findings are:

Streaming TV overtakes live

For the first time since this report was launched in 2019, the proportion of Americans who stream TV content (82.8%) daily has surpassed those who watch live TV (81%).

Summary of Millennials’ TV habits in 2021

Decrease in bingeing of TV

As the Great Reopening has gained pace this year, binge-watching of both live TV and streaming content has seen marked declines. While Netflix still dominates streaming, the percentage of people engaging in five-hour+ bingeing sessions on streaming platforms is down from 25.9% in 2020 to just 12.4% in 2021.
Meanwhile, nearly one in five consumers (19%) say they now watch no live TV in 2021, versus 14% in 2020.

Social is America’s favorite media to engage with

92.6% of Americans log onto social media daily, making it the country’s most popular medium. This is followed by streaming TV services (82.8%) and music streaming (81.1%).

Turning off the news & escaping reality

The research highlights a collapse in consumers watching TV news, potentially caused by pandemic fatigue and the conclusion of the Presidential election, with just under a third of Americans (31.8%) regularly tuning into news content in 2021, compared to 46.3% in 2020.
This escape from reality is borne out by Americans saying comedy (51.1%), drama (49.8%) and crime (42.3%) programs are their favorite types of TV shows.