“We started the study back in 2019 with one report in first quarter. Last year we released a report in first and second quarter. Now we are releasing a year-end report for third and fourth quarter 2020. Going forward we are hoping to do it twice a year. Our next is in the summer with first and second quarter 2021 findings,” she explained. This most recent release of the full 2020 year contains a wealth of fascinating takeaways which Coghill shared with MediaVillage.
Admittedly, 2020 was an incredibly unusual year with a pandemic, Black Lives Matter, a shift to working from home and a heated political environment all impacting various aspects of our lives. But Coghill believes that the trends discerned in this full year report are, in fact, the harbingers for future media consumption, especially as she sees the trends evolving through the full year.
Live Linear TV is Alive and Thriving
The data
shows that there has been a great change in viewing behavior from previous
years. “We saw a rise of live TV viewing in the latter half of 2020,” Coghill
explained, “Eighty-nine percent of all viewing in Comcast households in fourth
quarter was done live, which was the largest we’ve seen, and the average
Comcast household spent +16 more minutes a day with live TV in third quarter
and +10 more minutes a day with live TV in fourth quarter (compared to the same
time in 2019). She predicts linear will continue to grow because of the pent up
demand for fresh content. Much of the production was halted in 202 because of
Covid-19. And while there is obviously more streaming and digital viewing
taking place now, this consumption is, “being done in conjunction and not
necessarily as a replacement (to linear). There is so much content out there
for viewers to find and they have all of the control,” she said.
Cable Drove Viewership
The year also saw a huge rise in cable TV viewing overall. Coghill noted that, “Cable networks were a driver of the growth in live TV, 71% of all viewing was to cable networks – the highest share we’ve seen we began tracking three years ago.” Compared to broadcast and premium, cable viewing was by far, the biggest winner in terms of growth, a surprising takeaway for Coghill. Impressive growth occurred in several genres for different reasons.
News and Lifestyle Programming Drove Cable Viewing
Understandably in this news-heavy year, cable news networks were the main driver of cable gains. “There was huge growth in cable news viewing specifically,” she stated and added, “In the same period in 2019, cable news viewing accounted for 16% of all viewing. In the latter half of last year, it accounted for a quarter of all TV viewing. These networks saw a +63% increase in gross hours viewed compared to 2019.”
Notably, lifestyle and family programming also experienced growth of +9% year to year as viewers spent more time at home, spending more time with their children and contemplating improvements to make their domestic surroundings more comfortable and functional.
An Unusual Year for Sports
Because of the disruption of certain sports seasons, “the viewing shifted along with that,” she said, “But the growth we saw in news points to the fact that there is clearly a demand for live content and sports is always has a strong viewership. I think that as the seasons come back to normal, viewership will follow.” While people missed their favorite sports, once seasons started to come back, viewership followed and certain sports gained new viewers and the potential for new fans. “Sports fans who were not necessarily golf (or racing) fans were watching PGA and NASCAR because that were all of the sports they could get,” she noted. It will be interesting to see if any of these other sports will continue to attract viewers in 2021.
New Normal?
Will there is a post pandemic new normal? “We have been trending in this direction already,” she admitted, “Television is no longer about the top networks in primetime. Even though live viewing was up it wasn’t up because of the major top networks or an increase in prime viewing. What we are seeing is that households are watching all day, every day. There is growth across dayparts, especially with people being home … and households are watching different types of content.” Interestingly, she revealed that while the average household watches 33 different networks, if you add up all of the different networks viewed across all Comcast homes, the number of networks is a staggering 311 different networks.
But, she concluded, there is really no normal, “Everyone is doing what works for them and watching at different times of day and different networks and there is content now to allow for that.” In other words, stay tuned…
This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com
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