Say hello to the future cord-cutters of America

On weekdays in the Larsen household, Kirsten, 12, and Soren, 15, get up early and park themselves on the couch before school. But they do not turn on the TV. Instead, the youngsters each pull out their respective phones and fire up YouTube to get a dose of videos, essentially acquiring the information they need to know before encountering peers.

Say hello to the future cord-cutters of America. Not only is cable becoming increasingly unnecessary to them, but so, too, is the actual TV set.

The societal transference of TV viewing habits, from over-the-air to over-the-top, is most evidenced in how tots, tweens and teens consume content: using phones and tablets to access the Internet-based providers of their liking – no television necessary – with YouTube and Netflix consistently emerging as standouts.

“The shift away from traditional broadcast cable TV services, that’s been happening for years, but now we’ve hit critical mass,” said Terence Burke, the vice president of research for the kid-focused market research company KidSay. “Kids still watch TV. They still head to Disney and Nickelodeon, just in much smaller numbers and for much shorter durations.”

Burke, who spends much of his time in elementary, middle and high schools for ethnographic purposes, believes there is a massive movement underway in 2015 with kids’ attention diverting away from cable TV. The new normal is digital video consumed on handheld devices.

Smarty Pants, a market research firm that conducts an annual study on the digital behavior of kids ages 6 to 12, found that 81 percent of 6- to 8-year-olds and 76 percent of 9- to 12-year-olds use YouTube.

Netflix, meanwhile, is used by an identical percentage of the older set. A large chunk of the younger 6- to 8-year-olds, or 71 percent, are also Netflix users, according to the firm’s, “2015 Clicks, Taps & Swipes Report,” which was fielded between June and August with a nationally representative panel of kids and their parents.

With an endless selection of videos that are funny, irreverent and even educational, YouTube is not only the new stand-in for traditional cable TV when it comes to kids, but it’s also their go-to search engine. And, as kids get older, Netflix satisfies tweens’ emerging cravings for more serial material. Both video services win with kids because there is always something to watch, and all that’s required is a click of button on their favorite devices.

To court kids and, more importantly their parents, YouTube, Netflix and even Amazon have all created special spaces just for kids. Those family-friendly zones do well with preschoolers and kindergartners, but older kids want the real deal.

“In order to use YouTube, kids should be 13, but the reality is that 8-year-olds are on YouTube all the time,” Burke said. “How are you going to keep them on YouTube Kids when they’ve seen YouTube? You’re not.”

That, in part, explains the existence of YouTube Red, the digital video service’s new $10-per-month subscription option that removes all ads, allows for offline viewing, lets users watch clips while they’re using other apps, and will eventually come with original shows and movies featuring YouTube stars. The company has already successfully, perhaps unintentionally, hooked kids while they’re young. Why not create a way for these future cord-cutters to pay for more of what they clearly love?

Hastening the transition away from cable is the growing prevalence of smartphones, which are now commonplace among teens.

Fully 88 percent of American teens ages 13 to 17 have or have access to a mobile phone, and 73 percent of teens have smartphones, according to the Pew Research Center. But even tweens are increasingly getting access to their own devices.

“Once kids are tweens, they act like teens, and once they get a phone of their own phone, they’re glued to it,” said Wynee Tyree, the founder of Smarty Pants. Some kids as young as 8 are getting their own phones, she said, and “most have their own phone by the time they’re 12.”

If not phones, then tablets. And no matter the device, YouTube and TV are one and the same.

This story was originally published December 15, 2015 at 4:25 PM with the headline "Say hello to the future cord-cutters of America."