There’s no denying that the past few months have been uncharted times for most Americans. As quarantine and stay at home orders went into effect across the nation, the majority of people are either working from home or waiting at home until they can start working again.
And as people are staying at home, they’re looking to fill their time. Market research firm Piplsay recently asked selected US residents how COVID-19 had affected their lives in a number of areas, including media consumption.
Out of 66,908 respondents who were surveyed in March of 2020, 42,152 of them, a full 63%, said they’re watching more media. And 31% said they were watching the same amount, while 6% said they were actually watching less during this time. Given that a lot of people just have a TV on as background noise, it’s not surprising that people are watching more TV, but just how much more actually is surprising.
A third of people said they were watching one to three hours more each day, while 27% said they’re watching three to five hours more and another 25% said they’re watching over five hours more every single day. And 13% of people said they were watching more, but only an additional one hour a day.
People who fall into the Millennial and Gen Z generations showed the biggest increases, with 60% saying they’re now watching 3 hours more of TV or online content a day.
So if there’s one thing that’s clear, it’s that people are turning to streaming to pass their quarantine time. Providers are aware of this too, as several major platforms have rolled out free content in the past few weeks to attract new eyeballs to their services.
In a time where streaming was already increasing at an incredibly fast pace, these next few months will likely have an impact that lasts for years.
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