The pandemic accelerated changes in how people use their televisions, further reducing the dominance in traditional live viewing of what networks are showing, a new study has found.
Nearly two-thirds of people said in June that they viewed free video on demand content on their televisions once a week, up from 46% in February 2020, according to Hub Entertainment Research.
Hub also found that 39% of people said they paid to watch a movie at least once a week, and 39% also said they paid to watch a TV show. In both cases, that doubled the percentage of people who said the same thing before the COVID-19 shutdown.
鈥淧eople had a lot more time so they had a vacuum to fill,鈥� said Jon Giegengack, Hub principal and founder. 鈥淭he people who didn鈥檛 get laid off had more money to spend.鈥�
While these trends predated the pandemic, the time at home speeded things up, Giegengack said. Forty percent of the people who own smart TVs bought them since the initial COVID-19 shutdown, he said. Hub surveyed 3,000 U.S. consumers aged 14 to 74 who watch TV at least an hour a week.
The shift is also illustrated in the sharp declines of people watching live network television over the past few years.
Traditional television ratings by the Nielsen company illustrated two winners last week. Fox鈥檚 broadcast of the 鈥淔ield of Dreams鈥� baseball game from a field built out of an Iowa cornfield was the third most-watched program all week.
HBO said Sunday鈥檚 finale of its six-episode limited series, 鈥淭he White Lotus,鈥� was seen by nearly 2 million people across all formats. The viewership was more than triple what it was for the series debut.
In an otherwise quiet TV week, ABC led with an average of 2.69 million viewers in prime time. NBC had 2.65 million, CBS had 2.4 million, Fox had 2.2 million, Univision had 1.3 million, Ion Television had 1.1 million and Telemundo had 1 million.
Fox News Channel led the cable networks, with an average of 2.2 million viewers in prime time. MSNBC had 1.29 million, HGTV had 1.14 million, TLC had 1.05 million and Hallmark had 829,000.
ABC鈥檚 鈥淲orld News Tonight鈥� led the evening news ratings race, with an average of 7.8 million viewers last week. NBC鈥檚 鈥淣ightly News鈥� was second with 6.5 million and the 鈥淐BS Evening News鈥� had 4.7 million.
For the week of Aug. 9-15, the 20 most-watched programs, their networks and viewerships:
1. 鈥淎merica鈥檚 Got Talent鈥� (Tuesday), NBC, 7.14 million.
2. 鈥�60 Minutes,鈥� CBS, 6.51 million.
3. 鈥淔ield of Dreams Game: N.Y. Yankees vs. Chicago White Sox,鈥� Fox, 5.85 million.
4. 鈥淎merica鈥檚 Got Talent鈥� (Wednesday), NBC, 5.67 million.
5. 鈥淭he Bachelorette,鈥� ABC, 4.6 million.
6. 鈥淐elebrity Family Feud,鈥� ABC, 4.5 million.
7. 鈥淏ig Brother鈥� (Wednesday), CBS, 3.96 million.
8. 鈥淏ig Brother鈥� (Thursday), CBS, 3.86 million.
9. 鈥淏ig Brother鈥� (Sunday), CBS, 3.78 million.
10. 鈥淭he $100,000 Pyramid,鈥� ABC, 3.68 million.
11. 鈥淎merica鈥檚 Funniest Home Videos,鈥� ABC, 3.59 million.
12. ABC News Special: War in Afghanistan, ABC, 3.47 million.
13. 鈥淎merican Ninja Warrior,鈥� NBC, 3.45 million.
14. 鈥淣CIS,鈥� CBS, 3.41 million.
15. 鈥淧ress Your Luck,鈥� ABC, 3.28 million.
16. 鈥淔ield of Dreams Post-Game,鈥� Fox, 3.15 million.
17. 鈥淭ucker Carlson Tonight鈥� (Monday), Fox News, 3.124 million.
18. 鈥淭he Neighborhood,鈥� CBS, 3.118 million.
19. 鈥淭ucker Carlson Tonight鈥� (Tuesday), Fox News, 3.1 million.
20. 鈥淭ucker Carlson Tonight鈥� (Thursday), Fox News, 2.91 million.
鈥擠avid Bauder, The Associated Press
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