Why do the young watch what they watch

Metro audiences want more variety in content and are less loyal; non-metro viewers just want to get connected to the world: MTV survey

What do the young watch? Are they into humour or would they like to get serious? Does love make their world go round? Or is it crime and gore?

These are questions almost every marketing professional wants answers to, as did MTV, the youth general entertainment channel which recently conducted a survey to get to know its audience better. Their survey showed that pinning the young down to a definite answer is not only difficult, but a foolhardy expedition. Yeah, they want love and are romantic, but then crime works for many too. And yes, fun and entertainment is what they seek, but they also want to get into the tough talking world of news and tabooed issues. The survey, 'Audience Matters', spanning 1,250 individuals between the ages 15-22 years across 10 cities in India was conducted in an attempt to demystify the viewing habits of the youth.

7 REASONS WHY THE YOUNG WANT THEIR MTV

• It’s always about we
• I look up to the irreverence
• I dig that style and attitude
• Thank God, It’s not all about love
• I am happy and you know it
• I wanna talk taboos
• Am I having a FUN time?

"Today content is an important agenda on a marketer's plate because content is a big social connector," says Sumeli Chatterjee, head marketing media and insights at MTV India explaining why the channel sought to get into its audience's minds. So what did they find? For one, the audience is getting more discerning about what they watch and why they watch television. Also, they are making life more difficult for content creators - what grabs the eyeballs in the metros may not work at all with young audiences elsewhere.

Across metros and non-metros, respondents listed seven main reasons that they watch television - to know what is making news, to have a good time, to get some variety in their daily entertainment fix, to bond as a family, to get knowledgeable and finally (perhaps, most importantly too) because it is inexpensive and available.

While there was not much of a variance between the reasons to watch television in the metros and non-metros, the themes that the youth chose differed significantly. In non-metros, shows on friendship, romance and love had viewers hooked. But in the metros, stories on crime and struggle made the cut. Outside the metros, audiences prefer light hearted and entertaining content (71 per cent) versus serious programmes with a message for society (29 per cent) but the scales are more evenly balanced between the two categories in the metros at 57 and 43 per cent respectively.

The young metro MTV viewer also wants more shows around friends (62 per cent) versus parents and family (38 per cent). In the non-metros, family and parents come first (57 per cent). Chatterjee says that this could be because in the non-metros, TV viewing is a family activity and thus, themes or storylines that involve parents and other members of the family click. Bollywood is universally popular in the metros (56 per cent) and non-metros (50 per cent).

Not only do the young talk about what they watch, they are also habitual 'sharers'. "The content playlist is carefully curated and shared across their social timeline. The generation is hyperactive and multitasks across many screens. There is no time left to fill, so nothing is a time-pass content. Youth is extremely discerning of what they choose to watch and endorse. They browse through all that is available, but only engage with what they connect with," says Chatterjee.

For the network, this information is hugely useful as it gets them up close with the target group. Not only does it answer what the youth want to watch, it also classifies viewers into categories keeping in mind their preferences in content, modes of discovery and use of social media.

It also helps fine-tune the channel's branding strategies. In fact, one of the things that struck the channel says Chatterjee was that, "Communication and content are often used interchangeably. Conversations happen around content - whether it is communication (how the network brands itself) or whether it is a show (fiction or non-fiction, scripted content)." Viewers look at the channel and its shows as a single entity; for the young, MTV is what MTV shows.

The study found that the youth prefer storylines with multiple characters and the tone of the narrative needs to be irreverent but constructive. Also, it's not all about love and romance; ambitions, struggles and inhibitions matter too, as do taboo topics such as bullying, teen pregnancy and homosexuality.