With so much of the world trapped indoors for a large portion of the year, 2020 truly is the year of television, or so one might think. In reality, however, despite being locked in their homes with nothing to do, audiences across the board actually expressed less interest in live TV than last year’s numbers, with the most startling drop being among the 18-34 year old demographic.
Data compiled by Hub Entertainment Research shows that, compared to last year, young adult’s interest in live TV dropped significantly. In 2019 about 21% of young adults indicated that they preferred live TV over streaming when they wanted to watch something, a number that reduced to 14% in 2020, even with quarantine going on. As for the question of why, the most common answer respondents gave were that streaming was simply more convenient, and had more of their favorite shows.
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When considering the data as a whole, streaming services became more popular overall, going from the first choice of 47% of respondents to exactly 50% this year. Of those who had streaming options, around 23% chose Netflix as their go-to option, which has been backed up by the company’s impressive 10 million subscriber boost in Q2 of 2020.
Whether or not this sudden rise in streaming services will last beyond the pandemic however, is anyone’s guess. Analyst Peter Fondulas speculated that “perhaps more significant than the simple increase in online subscriptions is the profound shift in consumers’ viewing behaviors generally. Instead of reaching first for the cable remote when it comes time to watch TV, more and more consumers are defining TV viewing, first and foremost, as viewing on streaming services. Whether that shift persists once the pandemic crisis has passed is, of course, the billion-dollar question.”
It’s also the question that companies like Disney and Netflix have been trying to bend to their favor, offering more and more incentives to subscribe to their own services, hoping to hook consumers and keep them on the line as long as possible. The effectiveness of these tactics remains to be seen, and analysts may not get a clear answer until the lockdowns have fully passed.
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Source: The Wrap