Measurement firm Nielsen predicts that media consumption will rise as a result of the Coronavirus outbreak worldwide.
Across the globe, social distancing and quarantine policies have affected much of the media-consuming public who are encouraged or forced to stay home.
Nielsen observes that media consumption usually goes up in times of major events that require people to stay home for a longer time than they normally do.
Also, the firm says that the most common types of media consumed by people are feature films and news shows.
The measurement firm based its statement on the two shutdown events that happened recently. First is the Easter blizzard that brought three feet of snow on mid-Atlantic and northeast U.S. territories in 2016. The other one is Hurricane Harvey in 2017.
According to Nielsen data, TV usage in New York spiked by 45% on the weekend of Jan. 23-24 when the blizzard hit the most. On the other hand, TV watching rose by 56% when hurricane Harvey hit the southern states. What’s interesting to note here is that streaming services rose by 61% during those two events.
As the coronavirus continues to threaten lives, some are obediently heeding social distancing and quarantine policies set by their respective governments.
It is then more likely that people who are required to stay home will be resorting to various streaming services to be entertained.
According to Nielsen, almost 91% of U.S. adults are subscribed to one streaming service. One-third of those 91% are subscribed to three or more streaming services.
Even streaming services and media companies that produce content are affected by COVID-19. Netflix has suspended filming on both its US and Canada-based series to prevent their cast and crew from contacting the virus.
Warner Bros, Universal TV, Sony, and Disney have suspended filming of their current shows as well.
