Baby Boomers are Changing the World... and this Time it’s Subscription Style

by Annette Giambroni

Remember the days when everyone was worried the Baby Boomers were all going to retire at the same time and crash the social security system? Well, they are at it again… and this time they are trying to take down one of my favorite pastimes. The Television. It appears that while their retirement may have been delayed due to a down economy this same phenomenon has kept them at the office, and more importantly, on the computer.

I was reading Paul Carton’s Instablog today where he cites some interesting stats on how Baby Boomers are turning away from TV and towards online services and entertainment. I remember hearing the same thing just a few weeks ago at a Shasta Ventures (a Zuora investor) event where Mike Vorhaus, President of research and consulting firm Magid Advisors, provided insights on his last year of research. The gist of it being; the world is moving to online subscription services and if you want to thrive, you’ll need to target consumers where they’re currently spending their time, e.g. social media outlets like Facebook, gaming sites, and online video sites like YouTube.

Most of us think of teenagers as the biggest group to be jumping on the subscription and social media bandwagons but not so according to Carton…in his article "48% of (Baby Boomer) respondents say they’d be willing to pay a monthly fee for a Video-over-the-Internet subscription if it provided the same programming currently available on their TV service."

And while I am far from the Baby Boomer generation (a spry 36) I just may be willing to give up my TV for a Hulu subscription.