Nielsen’s recent “Total Audience Report” defies conventional wisdom by stating daily media usage in the US declined at the height of the pandemic.
The number of minutes of media used by the average American adult went down by 16% to 600 in the third quarter of 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic was at its height. In contrast, the average US adult consumed around 714 minutes of media daily in Q3 2019.
In terms of devices, daily media usage saw a decline of 39% year-over-year for smartphones. Similarly, live and time-shifted TV viewing saw a drop of 6% to 221 minutes daily at the same time.
While most devices, including TV, radio and tablets, observed a decline in daily media usage, connected TV and computers were exceptions. Connected TV showed an 18% gain, and computers connected to the internet had a 9% gain.
[2 minute read]
