Comscore finds U.S. VOD transactions peaked in April

Thursday, July 2nd, 2020
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Comscore Finds Video on Demand Transactions Peaked in April 2020

  • Overall May 2020 consumption dips month-over-month
  • Sports category transactions in May 2020 were 925 percent higher year-over-year

RESTON, Va. — New research from Comscore (Nasdaq: SCOR), a trusted partner for planning, transacting and evaluating media across platforms, shows a continued year-over-year (YOY) increase in video on demand (VOD) transactions as millions of Americans seek entertainment during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, overall consumption for May 2020 declined compared to the previous month, suggesting that consumption may be gradually returning to pre-pandemic levels.

Monthly Performance: Average Transactions per Subscriber Household - Percent Change By Category - TV Entertainment, Premium, Kids, Life & Home, Movies, News & Information, Music, Hispanic, Sports, Fitness - USA, Year-over-Year, 2019-2020

Looking at YOY change by key genres, several VOD categories have seen transformative increases during the pandemic. Sports and Fitness categories in particular, saw staggering 232 percent and 486 percent increases, respectively, in transactions through April 2020. Breaking from the general pattern of the April 2020 peak, the Sports category continued its rapid growth and registered a threefold increase in the month of May 2020, where transactions in May 2020 were 925 percent higher than sports transactions in May 2019. This underscores just how much Americans have missed live sports and fitness content during the peak months of April and May 2020.

Further insights from this new VOD research and about overall media consumption during the pandemic can be found at our Coronavirus Insights Hub.