Covid drives possible permanent shifts in US TV consumption
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| 14 December 2020
Even though streaming has taken all of the headlines in 2020 as lockdowns and stay at home orders have driven consumption, live and time-shifted have also enjoyed increases in viewing according to research from Nielsen.
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In its analysis of the year, Nielsen said with no little understatement that 2020 was not, by any standard, a typical year. It noted halts in production of new and existing shows, delays in autumn TV season premieres and an overall sense of time lost became realities as Americans were forced to recalibrate to spending more time at home. And in all likelihood, said the analyst, the atypical nature of the year would be profound enough to drive permanent shifts in consumer behaviour, including media consumption. Indeed the analyst said that it was already seeing them.

The analyst noted that while much of the shifting behaviour involved streaming on-demand video, consumers continued to spend the lion’s share of their TV time with live and time-shifted programming. In fact, second-quarter 2020 live and time-shifted TV consumption among people 18 and older increased year-on-year by an average of 4 minutes per day to 4 hours: 8 minutes. That compared with the 1 hour and 14 minutes spent with TV-connected devices each day. In the second quarter of this year, consumers 18 and older spent nearly of 6 hours each day with video, an increase of 35 minutes from the prior-year period.

Sports and news remained the two genres that command massive live viewership and, said Nielsen, the top time-shifted programmes stood as evidence, as a vast majority of the listed programmes were primetime dramas. Yet it added that was not to say that consumers would not watch other programming when it aired live, but consumers tended to be more selective when it comes to watching other genres as they air.

Looking at the ramifications of the research, Nielsen said that as consumers adjusted their media habits to fit their on-demand lifestyles, it was critical for programmers, advertisers and studios to understand what programme types were engaging live audiences. In order to make the most of that time spent, it advised networks and advertisers need to stay informed about where the eyeballs are as well as when they’re watching.

Looing to the future, Nielsen said that given the breadth of media options available, there likely would not be a time when there’s nothing for consumers to watch or engage with and that the growing depth of available content continued to inspire consumers to spend more time with media each day.

More broadly, Nielsen said that it had already seen shifts in when consumers were watching TV, namely those who now primarily work from home and that the growth in available streaming services has also showcased the value of library content—programming that stands the test of time and engages audiences well after the original air dates.