David Fern ndez Quijada, manager of the EBU's media intelligence service, provides TVBEurope with summary insight of how the organisation has been charting the impact of the Covid-19 crisis
By Contributor
Published: May 19, 2020
David Fern ndez Quijada, manager of the EBU's media intelligence service, provides TVBEurope with summary insight of how the organisation has been charting the impact of the Covid-19 crisis
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Covid-19 impact on media markets The crisis caused by Covid-19 is having short-term impacts that TVBEurope has already been reporting (EBU Covid-19 Crisis Report). From the perspective of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the five most immediate impacts are as follows:
The need to quickly change working conditions within broadcasters to adapt to new safety measures and ensure continuity of operations
The damage to the advertising revenue of free-to-air broadcasters
The halt of productions and the consequent shortage of supply of new material it generates
The complete absence of live sports, generating additional shortage of a key TV content
The closure of cinemas and how it is reshaping the release windows
As in every crisis, we also see some immediate winners, such as OTT streaming offers (not just SVoD players but OTT offers in general), online gaming and esports, all of them experiencing growing consumption and customer base.
After the initial impact, players in the industry are now reshaping their strategies in order to address the many medium-term challenges ahead:
Uncertainty over the funding of many traditional media outlets due to the forthcoming economic recession and associated advertising crisis
Concerns over public media funding in a context of economic recession
As a result of the challenges above, the uncertainty on the production sector, which mainly relies on free-to-air broadcasters, the main investors and supporters of the European creative sector
Changes in the balance between scripted and unscripted content in the audiovisual content sector
Redefinition of business models and monetisation schemes in the sports sector
Increasing importance of gaming and esports as components of the audiovisual value chain
Increasing questioning over the windowing system governing the European film industry in a fragile balance between cinemas, pay-TV operators, free-to-air broadcasters, and OTT platforms
Accelerated mutation to OTT streaming and on-demand media consumption
Covid-19 impact on digital media consumption Media consumption has increased during the Covid-19 pandemic and its associated lockdown, with some immediate trends also becoming clear:
Most internet users reported an increase in their time spent watching news, through all kinds of media
Lockdowns boosted the increase in digital media use more than for traditional media
As time goes by, people were craving less for news and turned to digital media for entertainment
Linked to this, a corona-fatigue was starting to be detected in different surveys. People already had enough basic information and they were feeling depressed and anxious with the news so they started to avoid [news outlets]
Video streaming was the top media activity to increase for youth, followed by online videos
Most media habits are expected to go back to normal after the crisis. However, for youth, the most mentioned behaviour to be continued after the crisis is more video streaming time
In-home habits changed more dramatically for parents with young kids, for example over-relying on mobile phones over other devices
Given the nature of the EBU, we also have a special interest in understanding how consumption changed particularly in relation to the digital offer of public broadcasters. In that sense, we saw unprecedented growth in interactions with public broadcasters' news-related posts on Facebook and Twitter, doubling from February to March 2020.
Similarly, public service media (PSM) YouTube news channels peaked mid-March as citizens went online for news on Covid-19. Beyond news, another area in which public broadcasters saw a huge increase in consumption was on children's content, boosted from March whether on YouTube or on their own dedicated websites as schools remained closed and children stayed at home.
TV and radio most trusted news sources: EBU
Trusted News Initiative to fight coronavirus misinformation
Farewell to Eurovision after a decade at the top
Public service media audience performance during covid-19 This brings the discussion into a core element of public service media: their provision of news. In these times of severe crisis, we have witnessed how audiences have turned to public service media for reliable information across TV, radio and digital.
Figure 1 Responding to the sudden demand of news on a permanent basis, public broadcasters multiplied their news content across platforms (+22 per cent more news hours in March vs. February 2020) (Figure 1). This increased offer was paired with an increasing consumption. Reach of public service media's evening news went up to x2.5 the average during peak days of Covid-19 crisis, those when key announcements were made: declared state of emergency, restriction of movements, etc.
Across Europe, the flagship evening news programmes of public broadcasters saw an average 20 per cent increase in daily viewing. The growth was more noticeable among younger demographics, with youth (15-24s) up a staggering 44 per cent and young adults (25-34s) an even more impactful
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David Fern ndez Quijada, manager of the EBU's media intelligence service, provides TVBEurope with summary insight of how the organisation has been charting the impact of the Covid-19 crisis
