Media consumption set to increase 60% during COVID-19 crisis as more countries impose quarantine measures aimed at reducing the spread of the virus according to analysis from market analysts, Nielsen. Media consumption in the US is already at historical highs with Americans spending just under 12 hours each day with media platforms. During crisis events, such as snowstorms, hurricanes or a global pandemic, media users ramp up their media consumption to stay informed, kill time, find solace and stay in touch with others.
For example, in August 2017 when Hurricane Harvey hit Houston, Texas Nielsen found a 56% increase of Total TV Usage (TUT) compared with the preceding period and 40% higher than the period following the storm. Similarly, over the weekend of 23rd January 2016, a severe snowstorm dropped more than two feet of snow in the New York area, grinding activity in the market to a near halt. Comparing the Saturday of the snow event to the prior Saturday in the New York area, TUT usage was 45% higher. That same Saturday was also 49% higher than the Saturday following the blizzard.
Nielsen found that consumers gravitated to feature films, news and general format programming. The analysis also found a 61% increase in streaming via the TV. Consumers stayed warm indoors binging content, watching movies and keeping up with news from the outside.
In South Korea and Italy where the virus has had an early and significant impact TV usage has increased by 17% and 12% respectively and is likely to increase as the pandemic intensifies.
Remote and Home working
Many companies have moved to remote and home working in an attempt to drive down costs and the COVID-19 pandemic is only likely to accelerate this process. Nielsen data suggests that employees that work remotely during a typical Monday through Friday work schedule connect over three hours more each week with traditional TV than non-remote workers, 25 hours and 2 minutes to 21 hours and 56 minutes respectively. In terms of devices, remote workers also spend a higher amount of time each week on their tablets -over 4.5 hours compared to the 4 hours for non-remote workers. Beyond viewing, remote workers also lean into listening. The reach of radio for remote workers compared to non-remote associates is nearly identical both at just over 95%.
![Podcast listening in US grew 20% in 2022 with the weekly listening average increasing from 2.7 hours in 2021 to 3.8 hours in 2022 according to Triton Digital. Triton Digital’s U.S. Year-End Podcast Report provides key insights into the growing US podcast landscape over the course of 2022. Key findings from the U.S. Year-End Podcast Report Podcast listening continues to grow, with a 20% increase in downloads in 2022. The average listener downloaded more than one hour more of content per week in 2022, in comparison to the prior year. Both Apple Podcasts and Spotify are leaders in where podcasts are consumed. Spotify has more listeners, but Apple has more total downloads and downloads per listener. Mobile remains the key podcast listening device. Smart speaker podcast listening has declined, returning to pre-Covid levels. News, Comedy, and True Crime remain the largest podcast genres. Significant consumption of back catalogue episodes exists, although varying by genre. Amongst the facts contained in the report, it now takes an average weekly download of 490K to make the top 51-100 position in the Podcast Top 100 chart and over 3 million downloads to get into the top 25. On average there were 226 million podcast downloads in the US with NPR News Now being the number 1 most downloaded podcast of the year. Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra was the top performing debut podcast of the year, launching in October with the highest number of downloads and listeners during a debut month. The report found that monthly podcast listeners are younger than the general population and are more likely to be male. They also tend to be more affluent, better educated and more diverse with 15% more Hispanic and 9% more Black/African American listeners than the general population. The complete 27-page report which is free can be obtained from Triton Digital here. Recent articles of interest [icon name="file-alt" style="solid" class="" unprefixed_class=""] US women want more female oriented podcasts [icon name="file-alt" style="solid" class="" unprefixed_class=""] Spotify reveals its 2022 Wrapped podcasts [icon name="file-alt" style="solid" class="" unprefixed_class=""] Podcast listening among US Latinos hits record high SOURCE: Triton Digital - Podcast listening in US grew 20% in 2022.](https://k4p2f2g6.rocketcdn.me/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Podcast-listening-in-US-grew-20-in-2022-feat-326x245.webp)
