Seniors Aren't Swarming to Video Via Mobile Devices, nScreenMedia Analyst Says

The number of senior citizens with smartphones is climbing, but that hasn't translated into less TV watching and more online video viewing by those seniors, nScreenMedia analyst Colin Dixon blogged Sunday. Pointing to Pew data, nScreenMedia said between 2011 and 2016, smartphone penetration among people 65 and older went from 11 percent to 42 percent, and 32 percent of seniors were using a tablet last year. But Nielsen data shows that although video usage has doubled in the past year among 50-plus smartphone video viewers, seniors still watch only 50-some minutes a week on the devices, suggesting seniors "are snacking on short form content ... not watching long-form video." TV watching among the demographic shows no sign of abating, Dixon said, with seniors using a connected TV watching 370 minutes of TV a week up 16 percent year over year.