TV Viewing Is Up And Pluto, Tubi, Crackle And Others Are Getting Discovered By Viewers

Not surprisingly, with many Americans staying home most of the time due to the COVID-19 virus, TV viewing and viewing of digital video content is way up. Numerous sources have reported that traditional TV viewing has recently increased, as well as OTT (Over the Top) digital viewing across the internet (IP-based video) which includes the SVOD (subscription VOD) and the AVOD (advertising-supported VOD) offerings from studios, entertainment companies and other distributors. Depending on the demographic of the TV viewers, the time of day, and the type of programming – TV viewing has grown during the COVID-19 crisis by a minimum of 20% and in many cases more. Nielsen
NLSN
reported that the average viewer consumed 40 hours of TV programming in late March of this year, vs. 33 hours a year ago March, an increase of 21%.

In research conducted by my firm among a nationally-representative sample of 2,000 Americans in June of 2019, we saw very modest usage of many of the AVOD companies including Pluto, Tubi and Crackle. Everyone of those companies has announced major increases in viewing time over the last two months. Pluto reported three times the viewing in April that it had at the beginning of the year. Tubi reported that their viewing hours were up 100% in April. Vudu reported an increase of 55% in this stay at home environment. Crackle reportedly received their highest viewing numbers ever in March.

Furthermore, many of these AVOD services such as Pluto, Tubi, and Vudu, were acquired by major media companies over the last 18 months. Pluto was acquired by Viacom, Tubi by Fox, and Vudu by Fandango/NBCU. This means that these AVOD services, that do not charge, but are supported by advertising dollars, will have more and more high-end content from their owners to offer viewers as they fight for market share among each other and among the SVOD behemoths like Netflix, Amazon
AMZN
, Disney+ and others.

The COVID-19 crisis has been a rare opportunity for more TV programming to be discovered by many more new consumers. Realgood, a TV streaming video service, said that overall AVOD services were up 148% in April from March, this year. Exposure to the AVOD services that were less used and less well-known before the stay at home orders, will allow the services a chance to turn a viewer who just “discovered” them into a more regular viewer.

The quarantine is giving these lesser known TV services, particularly the AVOD services, an opportunity to get known by many more TV viewers. There are already some indications of TV viewing retreating just a bit and when viewing patterns go “back to normal” we will see which of the AVOD TV services moved up the audience viewership ladder.