New research from Comscore reveals that consumers’ engagement with streaming services and year-over-year in-home data usage has experienced a spike throughout the beginning of May. According to Comscore's Total Home Panel data, average in-home data consumption increased by 33% during the first ten days of May 2020 compared to the first ten days of May 2019 (May 1-10, 2020 versus May 1-10, 2019). The figure is a reflection of a 28% and 36% year-over-year increase in March and April 2020.
Smart TVs have increased by 60 percent, mobile phones by 47 percent, streaming boxes/sticks by 39 percent, and smart speakers by 35 percent. The numbers are driving year-over-year growth trends. In-home data usage remained strong through the week of 20 April 2020 but started declining recently, possibly due to some states easing their social distancing protocols.
The top five streaming services still account for the majority of total over-the-top (OTT) hours streamed at home, which have increased by 80%. During the last two months, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+ have seen a massive increase in streaming hours through the week of 11th May versus 3rd February.
Though Disney+ currently holds a smaller share of streaming hours among the "big five", it is nearly two times larger than the next video-oriented OTT app offering in terms of streaming hours. Disney+’s viewership dramatically increased during the pandemic when looking at growth relative to its previous share. Some of the growth is likely related to content released to the streaming platform, such as the straight-to-VOD release of the movie "Onward" which landed on Disney+ on 3rd April 2020. As states continue to decide whether they should reopen, in-home data consumption and OTT streaming habits will likely continue to shift. Comscore will continue to monitor the changing consumption and provide ongoing insights on its Coronavirus Insights Hub.
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