Article by eMarketer Editors
Source: www.emarketer.com, May 2020
US TV viewership and time spent is getting an unexpected bump as people continue to stay home due to the coronavirus pandemic. But once shelter-in-place measures relax, we expect both to decline again, according to our latest forecasts.
In 2020, the number of traditional TV viewers will grow by 8.3 million to 287.3 million, the first time viewership has seen positive growth since 2011. While older TV viewers are driving most of the increase, all age groups posted some growth. Total viewership will fall again in 2021.
More people are watching TV and spending more time doing so. We expect average daily TV viewing time among Americans to grow this year by 19 minutes to 2 hours, 46 minutes per day. This is the first time since 2012 that time spent with traditional TV will grow. Our previous forecast from Q4 2019 expected TV time to decline this year to 2 hours, 20 minutes.