Sentiments Around Streaming Services in the U.S.

Sentiments Around Streaming Services in the U.S.

Classical music, folk, and children’s music are among the top genres Americans are streaming during the COVID-19 pandemic. Likewise, they prefer pandemic movies such as Outbreak, Contagion, etc., during the crisis. Overall, African-Americans spend more hours on average than Americans when it comes to streaming content.

I. Sentiments Around Streaming Services in the U.S.

More Consumers Planning to Subscribe to Streaming Services

• While data specific to African-Americans sentiment towards streaming services in the U.S. during the COVID-19 crisis is unavailable, existing data covering the entire American population shows a growing preference for subscribing to streaming entertainment.
• In a recent survey by 4As Research, about 37% of Americans indicated that they would purchase streaming entertainment services in the next 30 days starting from March 20, 2020.
• In comparison to other preferences, food led the list and is preferred by 80% of Americans, followed by household supplies by 72% of Americans, then personal care items by 52% Americans, healthcare 50%, and closing the top five preferred items is streaming entertainment chosen by 37% of Americans.

Improving Mood and Finding Uplifting Content

• Research findings from a recent survey show that most Americans stream content on YouTube to improve their mood and find educational, helpful, and uplifting content.
• According to the survey, 69% of the respondents find content on YouTube to be more uplifting compared to other channels, while 80% of the survey participants stream on YouTube to improve their feelings.
• Survey findings show that only 33% of the respondents stream on YouTube for COVID-19 content. 48% of the respondents stream entertainment videos and music-related content, 33% consume comedy, 31% prefer DIY (do it yourself) videos, and 29% stream cooking-related content.

Content that Reflects African-American Images and Stories

• According to research, African-American viewers are “voracious for content that depicts their images and stories,” and this behavior is forcing providers like BET, OWN, and TV One to increase their original content to remain competitive.
• Research shows that about60% of African-American viewers find original content provided by streaming platforms like Amazon, Hulu, and Netflix to be more reflective of America’s diversity versus the shows on TV and Cable TV.
• African-Americans are also drawn to original African-American targeted content, especially movies and series. Platforms that have embraced this approach are seeing an uptick in subscriptions; for example, Urban Movie Channel (UMC) saw its subscriptions jump by 400% over the past 18 months from February 10, 2020.

II. Indicators Showing Changes in the Viewing Habits of the General American Population

Internet Data Usage Surges

• COVID-19 has forced Americans to work and play from home causing home internet data usage to rise. From March 9 through 16, the average downstream and upstream usage per user in urban centers jumped by 3% and 68.6%, respectively.
• During the same period, downstream usage increased by 3% and upstream by 41.9% in rural areas. Daytime internet usage (9 a.m. to 5 p.m.) jumped by 34.4% while peak usage (6 p.m. to 11 p.m.) increased by 11%.

Consumers Are Connecting More Devices

• By the end of Monday, March 16, the number of devices connected to home Wi-Fis has jumped significantly, according to Plume, a provider of home Wi-Fi and smart solutions serving 14 million homes.
• The top five markets with the highest increases are Seattle 6%, the San Francisco/Bay Area 85.3%, Philadelphia 73.4%, New York 59.4%, and Los Angeles 51.8%.

Expanding TV Viewership

• Data on home device usage shows an increase in TV viewership during March 2020 compared to March 2019.
• According to Statista, the average data usage for in-home connected TV was 6 gigabytes in March 2019; however, in March 2020, the value expanded to 3.6 gigabytes of data per day.

Increasing Time Spent Watching TV

• According to Nielsen data, American adults’ average time per day viewing traditional TV has been declining by about 7%, which is equivalent to a decrease of 3 hours and 56 minutes.
• On the other hand, the time spent viewing content on connected-TV devices climbed by 17% to 55 minutes Overall, the data also revealed that 96% of the respondents subscribe to a streaming video service.
• Existing data shows that African-Americans are spending more hours on average (14 hours 26 minutes) per day consuming data via TV, gaming console, internet, etc., followed by whites (11 hours 44 minutes), Hispanics (10 hours 34 minutes), and Asians (8 hours 18 minutes).

Increasing First-time Subscriptions for Streaming

• Streaming platforms have seen a surge in usage and subscription during the COVID-19 crisis. According to data published by Market Watch, Disney+ and Hulu are the most popular platforms for first-time subscribers during the pandemic.
• According to more recent data, 29% of new streaming customers opted for Disney+, 21% subscribed to Hulu, 15% Netflix, and less than 10% of the consumers chose Apple TV+.

Growing TV Subscriptions

• Since the outbreak of COVID-19, three-quarters of U.S. consumers have continued to add “streaming subscriptions and TV-connected devices.” Moreover, U.S. streaming has gone up by 61%. Data shows that, on average, 30% of Americans subscribe to at least three or more streaming platforms.
• Equally, companies are trying to minimize data requirements for streaming; for example, YouTube started offering a standard-definition stream which consumes about 1 Mbps, versus high-definition videos requiring at least 5.5 Mbps.

Mobile Device Data Usage Increases

• Following the COVID-19 pandemic, mobile device usage has increased in the U.S. based on the average daily data consumed via mobile devices.
• The 2019 average monthly in-home data usage by device versus 2020 shows that phone usage climbed by 21% in January, 27% in February, and 34% in March compared to the same period in 2019.

Mobile App Usage

• Mobile app usage has increased significantly during the COVID-19 crisis. According to new data published by Verizon, week-over-week gaming apps have increased by 75%.
• 46% of respondents in a survey claim to use their mobile devices more outside work. About 23% of the respondents are playing new titles, while another 35% focuses solely on playing games, versus 32% playing games and streaming content at the same time.

III. Top Genres or Category of Entertainment

Pandemic Movies

• The COVID-19 pandemic has led to an increase in the viewership of pandemic-related films and TV shows.
• Contagion, a decade-old movie has been trending a lot, and in the U.S., it reached iTunes’ top 10 list of rentals. On Warner Bros, it is reported as the second most-watched movie for 2020.

Classical, Folk, and Children’s Music Genres

• Data regarding music consumption by genre shows a drastic decline in the streaming of pop, rap, R&B, and Latin music compared to other genres.
• Surprisingly, three music genres have seen an uptick in streams. Classical music is up 5%, folk music is up by more than 2.9%, and lastly, children’s music is also on the rise by more than 3.8%.

Coronavirus Parody Music Videos

• A study of over 114 coronavirus videos on YouTube shows that they had already attracted over 21 million views during the study.
• Artists are getting creative with existing music and are transforming it to relate with COVID-19 in amusing ways; for example, Neil Diamond changed the lyrics to “Sweet Caroline” in coronavirus PSA (public service announcement).

Research Methodology

Extensive searches in public did not return meaningful findings focused solely on African-Americans viewing habits, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Only historical data exists with such information; however, it does not relate to the effects of COVID-19’s social distancing. In this regard, general sentiments for the general American population have been provided. Searches through local news and reports focusing on black neighborhoods also did not return useful findings. It appears that no research has been commissioned to focus exclusively on African-Americans because existing research focuses on the entire nation and not a single demographic.

Unfortunately, we did not find any report showing that the internet needs of African-Americans or the general American population have changed; for instance, whether they need high-speed internet or faster internet speeds. Existing research shows an increase in bandwidth consumption per day but does not categorize the results by race. Moreover, no report seems to indicate that Americans need faster internet in this time of crisis. Data available in public shows that streaming giants are cutting on quality to allow many users to stream effortlessly due to the increase in internet usage.

Generally, the data uncovered above comes from numerous reports published from February 2020. These reports feature consumer studies and behaviors, specifically regarding their viewing habits during the COVID-19 outbreak. On that note, we examined a range of business and research reports, advertising and marketing articles and reports, media press releases and posts, published by Market Watch, Business of Apps, AAAA.org, Channel Factory, Multichannel.com, Comscore, Statista, Nielsen, etc. These resources and many more featured more recent data with insights into the changing viewing habits of Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic.