Poor people in Boston may be harmed if Comcast switches NBC programming to a weaker down-cable station, as WHDH Channel 7 says in its suit against the cable giant.

But another fast-growing group would also miss out on the Peacock Network’s shows — cord-cutting millennials who are watching a la carte TV.

Nationwide, the number of viewers who get their programming through a combination of streaming devices such as Roku and Apple TV and old-school antennas is expected to jump from 12.5 percent this year to 15.4 percent next year, according to eMarketer, a New York-based market research firm.

That means NBC shows would not be readily available to a growing segment of the city population of college-age kids and young professionals come Jan. 1, 2017.

WHDH cited that argument in its federal suit against the cable giant yesterday, saying its breakup with NBC would unfairly force cord-cutters to buy cable if they want to watch “Saturday Night Live” and “Sunday Night Football.”