Today, teen television consumption follows the larger pattern of viewership in the United States in that it’s skewed more and more towards digital in the past few years. But exactly how and what teens are watching online looks a little different than the viewing patterns of their elders. This past spring, a survey from investment bank Piper Jaffray found that teens spend more time (37% of daily video streaming) on YouTube than they do on Netflix (where they spend just 35% of their video time). Netflix still remains more popular among teens than Hulu or Amazon Prime, and far surpasses cable TV, which they spend just 12% of viewing time in front of the big screen.
According to a 2018 poll from the Pew Research Center, 85% of teens use YouTube, which represents significantly more users than Instagram (72%), Snapchat (69%), or Facebook (51%), YouTube is clearly a dominant medium for Gen Z. For a generation defined by a craving for authenticity, this makes sense. While Studio71 content is available across platforms (9.2% of digital video viewed by American adults is from Studio71), YouTube is where a large chunk of our audience comes from. On YouTube, Studio71 digital video garners 11 billion monthly views, with a large portion of those views by Gen Z consumers.
Whether digital or traditional, television networks made for teenagers are a unique category, and a relatively recent development in the history of TV. Even iconic teen shows like My So Called Life (1994) and Beverly Hills 90210 (1990–2000) aired on network television (ABC and FOX, respectively). The first true teen network, The WB, predecessor to The CW, launched in 1995 and a few years later hit its stride with young adult programming, which included hits like Dawson’s Creek (1998–2003), Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003) and Gilmore Girls (2000–2007). Looking to the success of The WB as a model in the mid aughts, more teen-specific networks started to appear.
Take, for example, TeenNick, which began in 2002 as a late-night programming block on children’s network Noggin, a joint venture between Nickelodeon and Sesame Workshop. In 2007, The N became its own 24-hour channel. Freeform, which is largely made up of teen programming, is the latest iteration of Fox Family, which became ABC Family after it was bought by Disney in 2000. Shows that have existed on some version of this channel include Pretty Little Liars (2010–2017), The Secret Life of the American Teenager (2008–2013) and Switched at Birth (2011–2017).
Given this segmentation, for most of the aughts, major networks didn’t produce teen TV shows. But now, cable TV networks see an opportunity to court a younger audience, and teen shows are coming back in the mainstream. HBO’s teen-focused drama Euphoria, which was produced in partnership with A24 and premiered last year, stars former Disney channel star Zendaya. The show garnered good reviews and was renewed for a second season. It’s the first time HBO has dipped into teen programming, but the network seems eager to reach even more of that demographic through HBOMax, their standalone platform which debuts this May. The docket of new programming includes a Gossip Girl reboot, centered around “a new generation of New York private school teens,” and Generation, a Lena Dunham-produced “dark yet playful” half hour series that follows the sex lives of a group of high school students. Sounds like a familiar story.
