COVID-19 (Coronavirus pandemic) News

Nordic consumers’ media spend unaffected by the pandemic
Jan 13, 2021 – According to figures from Mediavision, the average household in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden spent approximately €70 per month on media during fall of 2020. This is similar to early 2020, before the pandemic.
News categories: Mediavision, COVID-19, Denmark, Digital TV, Finland, Market Research, Norway, Sweden

Historic U.S. consumer technology sales in 2020
Jan 8, 2021 – 2020 was a year of historic growth for the U.S. consumer technology industry with sales up 17% (through Dec. 26, 2020) and according to NPD this momentum will continue into the first quarter of 2021.
News categories: NPD Group, Stephen Baker, COVID-19, Digital TV, Market Research, USA

TV installed base in the U.S. getting bigger and newer
Dec 23, 2020 – According to NPD, over the last several years American TV screens have been inching up in size. Installed TVs in the U.S. are now larger (15% are 60" or over) and newer (the average age is 4.9 years) than ever before.
News categories: NPD Group, John Buffone, Stephen Baker, COVID-19, Digital TV, Market Research, Smart TV, USA

Video streaming subscription growth sets new record
Dec 15, 2020 – Strategy Analytics' research has found that the annual increase in global SVOD subscriptions in Q3 2020 reached 217.6 million, the highest ever, beating the previous record of 211.7 million in Q4 2018.
News categories: Strategy Analytics, Michael Goodman, David Mercer, COVID-19, Digital TV, Market Research, OTT, Worldwide

Internet playing even more dominant role in US entertainment consumption
Dec 10, 2020 – The second wave of Hub's 'Predicting the Pandemic' study shows how the pandemic has accelerated the well-established shift to online consumption of entertainment content across multiple facets of the leisure economy.
News categories: Hub Entertainment Research, Peter Fondulas, COVID-19, Digital TV, Market Research, OTT, USA

Lack of sports programming drives video service cancellations in the U.S.
Dec 10, 2020 – Parks Associates found that, as of May 2020, 8% of US broadband households cancelled at least one video service due to the COVID-19 crisis, including 4% of that cancelled a traditional pay-TV service.
News categories: Parks Associates, Jennifer Kent, COVID-19, Digital TV, Market Research, USA

Extreme Reach releases 3Q 2020 Video Benchmarks Report
Dec 9, 2020 – Extreme Reach (ER) has released the findings of its Q3 2020 Benchmarks Report, which includes ad performance data for impressions served from its AdBridge platform to CTV, desktop, and mobile devices for July through September.
News categories: Extreme Reach, Mary Vestewig, Advertising, Big Data, COVID-19, Market Research, USA

47% of US broadband households subscribe to Amazon Prime Video
Dec 9, 2020 – OTT video service research from Parks Associates finds 47% of US broadband households subscribe to Amazon Prime Video, second only to Netflix among subscription-based OTT video services in the US.
News categories: Parks Associates, Steve Nason, COVID-19, Digital TV, Market Research, OTT, USA

Churn rate drops for U.S. OTT services especially vMVPDs
Dec 8, 2020 – Parks Associates research finds the overall annual churn rate for OTT services dropped from 46% in 3Q 2019 to 38% in 3Q 2020. vMVPDs experienced an even more dramatic drop, from 84% in 2019 to 49% in 2020.
News categories: Parks Associates, Steve Nason, COVID-19, Digital TV, Market Research, OTT, USA