We’ve already seen a lot of analysis about the viewing habits of Millennials. We know as a group that they watch less traditional linear TV than older generations. We know that over 30% of millennial households are already cord cutters and get all of their entertainment from some source other than traditional TV.

But now we are starting to get a glimpse at Generation Z, the next wave of our kids. These are the generation following the millennials. A new survey firm, Wildness, is concentrating on this generation to study trends for companies that want to market to this segment. The firm is a spin-off of AwesomenessTV (and since I assume you don’t know what that is, it’s a leading source of programming for kids on YouTube).

Wildness just did their first survey of Generation Z viewing habits. These kids are the first ones to grow up in a connected world since birth. They looked at 3,000 kids from 12 to 24 and found the following:

• Nine out of ten watch YouTube daily.
• For 31% of them their favorite programming is on YouTube.
• 30% of them follow their favorite brands on social media and post about them.
• When asked if they could keep only one viewing screen, only 4% said they would keep a television. Their screen of choice is a cellphone.

This does not bode well for traditional linear television. For a long time industry pundits assumed that millennials would ‘come back’ to traditional TV as they got older and started their own households. But they have not done so and now it’s largely accepted that the way you learn to view content as a kid will heavily influence you throughout your life. And Generation Z kids are not watching linear TV.

Another interesting aspect of Generation Z is that they are not just content consumers, they are also content generators. More than half of them routinely generate content of their own (short videos, pictures, etc.) and share with their friends. And a significant amount of their viewing is of content generated by other kids. This has to scare traditional content generators a bit as these kids are not consuming traditional media to the extent of older generations. This generation has blurred and blended their social life with their online life to a much greater degree than older generations. This is the first generation that freely admits to being connected 24/7.

And it’s not just prime time TV shows that are being ignored by this generation. They are also not following sports, traditional news or any of the other standards of programming. At a young age they are discovering that interacting with each other is far more satisfying than watching content ‘crafted’ for them by older generations. Most of the programming they follow on YouTube is being generated by contemporaries (millennials or younger) rather than by traditional media companies.

Anybody that offers traditional cable TV has to look at these statistics and know that the clock is already ticking towards a day when cable TV becomes obsolete. Already today the average age of viewers of prime time shows keeps climbing as younger viewers eschew linear programming.

Last year about 1.7% of all households become new cord cutters. That may not sound like a lot, but it’s over 2.1 million households. And it seems that cord cutters rarely come back to traditional TV. A lot more older households are also favoring Netflix and other OTT content. These households still maintain cable TV subscriptions, but you have to wonder for how long.

I would not be surprised within a few years to see cord cutting accelerate rapidly. It’s getting hard to find households that are satisfied with what they are paying for cable TV. Even those who love traditional cable think it costs too much. And this could lead at some point to a rapid abandonment of traditional cable. But one thing the industry must accept is that when Generation Z grows up they are not going to be buying cable TV.