On smartphones, 4 hours a week on VOD is the new normal

BARC-Nielsen have been releasing its reports on the impact of the COVID-19 led disruption on Television consumption and Smartphone Usage. In the 3^rd Session in the Insights series, the BARC-Nielsen report reveals that smartphone usage registered a 12.5 per cent increase during Week 3 of the current nationwide lockdown, over the pre-COVID-19 period. The daily time spent per user on smartphones was at 3 hours 48 minutes [1L+, NCCS ABC, 15-44 yrs]. 

After a staggering growth, social connectivity is seen to stabilise in Week 3 as people get used to the new normal. Time spent on Chat VOIP was at 5 hours 17 minutes per user per week in Week 3, slightly lower than 5 hours 22 minutes in Week 2. On the other hand, for social networking, time spent per user per week stood at 4 hours 39 minutes in Week 3, compared to 4 hours 34 minutes in Week 2. 

The surge in time spent on News continued in Week 3 as well, with news apps seeing time spent of 39 minutes, a growth of 41 per cent over the pre-COVID-19 period. Overall, news aggregators saw a 39 per cent growth in time spent per user per week, with regional news apps registering a growth of 141 per cent, followed by Hindi news apps at 101 per cent and English news apps at 36 per cent. 

News websites also saw a growth of 34 per cent, with number of visits per week up at 21. Hindi news websites led at a growth of 31 per cent, followed by English news websites at 28 per cent and multi-language news websites by 9 per cent. 

On smartphones, 4 hours a week on VOD is the new normal, even as gaming continues to add more users.

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