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YuMe conducted a study that tracked how millennials consume media, finding that 13% watch video content on their smartphones while they work, while another 13% watch while they shop. In total, 94% of millennials are multitasking (and likely distracted) while viewing content.

Smartphones and tablets, not televisions, are the gateway to a millennial audience. Millennials recall brands at a much better rate when they're on mobile devices, and they think of the TV as old-fashioned. In fact, only 3.1% of millennials consider brands that advertise on TV as being "modern."

More than twice that number think of smartphone advertisers as having "modern" brands.

56 percent of "training millennials" (people ages 14-24) are tuning in to their favorite shows on computers, smartphones, tablets and gaming devices rather than a television. The majority, 32 percent, are watching on their computers, while just 7 percent are keeping up with the Kardashians on their tablets.

Thirty-four percent of millennials surveyed watch mostly online video or no broadcast television, new research from The New York Times says.

Users reported spending the most time with funny videos, movie clips, music videos and then news.

And 59 percent said they’ll likely watch pre-roll ads if they know they won’t have to wait long for their content.

Viacom, for one, is actively using social media applications, such as a subscription-based app for MTV Europe and a soon-to-be-launched "Mon Nick Junior" application targeting preschoolers. It's also studying different demographics, particularly millennial and post-millennials, to glean ideas for additional multiscreen products.

This strategy is sure to appeal to Millennials, a key audience for TV networks and social sites alike, but its logic runs deeper than chasing a behavioral trend. Blending TV with social media is like converting a stage play into improv. When content producers take direction from the audience, the results are dynamic and customized.

This phenomenon has particular import for the producers of content that has a long lead time and only airs once a week. In order to sustain its relevance, producers must ensure it appears current. That means supplementing TV shows with fresher, more frequent material that lives online, and inviting viewers to take part in its distribution.

Similarly, BuzzFeed introduced a program earlier this month called Social Tune In that aims to bridge the gap between online content and the TV screen. In collaboration with AMC Networks' comedy channel IFC, BuzzFeed has created BuzzFeed Blocks that are airing on Saturday nights.

Twitter is specifically about what is happening right now,” says Ron Amram, senior media director of Heineken USA, adding that Amplify has become Twitter’s most promising ad tool. “To allow a brand to have real-time ownership of a video that says, ‘This is what you need to know right now’ is pretty powerful.”

To attract more social media attention, “marketers are taking moments that would have been talked about at the water cooler and are allowing them to unfold live,” says Adam Bain, Twitter’s president of global revenue.

A division of 30 employees works with media companies to ensure that networks and their actors tweet during broadcasts and that Twitter hashtags and user names appear on the screen

56 percent of US tablet owners age 18-34 use their tablet for activities related to the TV program they are watching or for other programming related activities.  This compares to just 41 percent among all tablet owners age 18 and older.

The top three TV-related tablet activities among Millennials are; searching for programing to watch (34 percent), social media engagement related to a TV program (31 percent) and learning more about the program they are viewing (30 percent). Even more tablet owners age 18-34 say they want to use their device in conjunction with TV viewing in the future and social media is a driving factor.

44 percent said they would consider using their device in the future for social media activity related to a TV program making it the number one way this age group wants to engage while watching TV.

With the rapid adoption of the tablet as a content device, interest in streaming content has nearly doubled in the past year (from 17% in 2012 to 32% in 2013). Consumers have also expressed more interest in consuming programming on different devices and from different sources. (Indeed, younger Millennials spent more time watching content on non-television devices, even when that content was originally created for television, Belson says.)

“This is the first year that consumers have started to decouple the notion that content from a particular source [must be viewed on] a different device,”

Only 6% of consumers who had pay-TV services said they were considering giving up the services in the next year, according to the survey.