Time spent on smartphones, TV viewing up by 6-8 per cent

With people staying indoors amid the coronavirus-induced lockdown, television viewership, smartphone usership and video-on-demand consumption have increased. TV viewing minutes per week has increased by 8 per cent, a 70 billion minutes jump, during the recent week compared to the pre-Covid-19 period. Similarly, the time spent on smartphones per user has gone up by 6.2 per cent, a jump of 1.5 hours.

This was revealed by a report released by Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India and Nielsen on Friday, explaining the impact of Covid-19 on television and digital media behaviour across India. It has considered January as the ‘pre-Covid period’, and compared it with the‘Covid disruption period’, which is the recent week, for the report.