Comscore Research Reveals Coronavirus Crisis is Dramatically Impacting Media Consumption
As the world adjusts to this new reality,
Among the key findings from
- In a time of crisis, people turn to local news: The top 25 markets registered an 11% increase in viewing for the week of
March 9 , compared to the week ofFeb. 10 . - Interest soars for government healthcare information sources: Total digital visits (mobile and desktop) and mobile web-only visits to the
CDC ,NIH and WHO sites have seen incredible recent growth. Total digital visits were up 425%March 9-15 vs.Jan. 6-12 , and the week ofMarch 9-15 was up 79% over the week prior. - Pervasive public demand for news: Across 40 select news sites, the week of
March 9-15 was the highest week of news visits this year, by far – more than 100 million more news visits than next highest week (which was the previous weekMarch 2-8 ). We saw 23.4% growth the week ofMarch 9-15 vs.Mar 2-8 and 30.9% growth vs.Jan. 6-12 . - Spikes for the e-commerce giants as social distancing and local restrictions impact in-store retail: Total digital visits to an aggregate of Amazon, Walmart and Target's sites registered 779 million visits the week of
March 9-15 – the highest number of visits of any week so far in 2020.Comscore data also showed 3.8% growth versus the previous week (and the second highest week-over-week growth of the year with the highest being 4.7% growth the week ofFeb. 24 to March 1 ). - Global movement restrictions lead to tumultuous traffic for travel sites: Looking at 20 of the top travel sites, including airlines, aggregators, hospitality, etc., travel visits declined 7.3% the week of
Feb. 24 to March 1 and declined again 4.8% the week ofMarch 2-8 . However, travel spiked the week ofMarch 9-15 , increasing 9.5%. This could be due to a large number of trip cancellations occurring this week requiring visits to the travel sites to rebook or cancel plans. In addition, many major airlines and travel companies began offering inexpensive flights and deals during this time which may have driven some increased demand. Hollywood grapples with the Coronavirus impact on moviegoing activity:Comscore's Paul Dergarabedian noted that "It's so hard to predict how this will play out. It's an ever-changing, ever-evolving situation that the entire world is trying to wrap their minds around. For the short term, obviously there's an impact." Receipts totaled about$54.7 million inU.S. andCanada theaters, according to studio estimates Sunday. Not since 2000 has weekend box office revenue been so low, according toComscore , when$54.5 million in tickets were sold on a quiet September weekend.
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Neil Ripley
Comscore, Inc.
646-746-0579
press@comscore.com