With many people trapped at home and with professional sports shut down, it comes as little surprise that the number of people streaming is up – WAY up – according to analytics giants Nielsen.
From the fourth full week of March 2019 up to the fourth full week of March 2020, streaming among people aged 25-54 has increased almost 100% in the United States.
The latter date is inclusive of stay-at-home orders which had taken effect by March 23rd this year due to the pandemic. In fact cities that were among the first wave of them have had some of the biggest increases. The biggest drivers were entertainment content along with fitness and wellness programs, gaming live streams and cooking.
However streaming had already been growing organically over the past few months, driven in part by the advent of new streaming services like Disney+. Netflix saw a 15.8 million jump in paid subscribers the first quarter of the year, which is double early estimates, while Showtime’s service has seen sign-ups jump 148% in the last four weeks while viewership of original TV series and movies on it is up 50% and 80% respectively.
Once the pandemic hit, the biggest change has been younger demographics surging by more than 60% due to schools being closed. In addition, the biggest jump in streaming consumption during the day came in the early afternoon (1pm-4pm) with more than 50% increases in streaming at that time.
Source: Deadline
