The coronavirus pandemic or COVID-19 has had unprecedented consequences for the economy, the health sector, and businesses worldwide. But perhaps the most unprecedented consequence on the pandemic is the effect it has had on the entertainment industry; and by extension, streaming platforms.
At first glance, it would appear that the increase in downtime for the majority of the population would translate to music ratings on streaming sites. But contrary to expectations, ratings are at an all-time low.
Music-streaming suffers
For the most popular songs, people in some highly affected countries are streaming far fewer songs during the pandemic than before.
In Italy, one of the countries hardest hit by the coronavirus outbreak, the top 200 most streamed songs on Spotify within the country averaged 18.3 million total streams per day in February 2019.
Since Italy’s prime minister announced a national quarantine on March 9th, the total streams for the 200 most popular songs have not topped 14.4 million. There was a 23% drop in the top 200 streams on Tuesday, March 17th compared to Tuesday, March 3rd.
Musicians want more
Musicians are calling on Spotify to triple its royalty rates following the coronavirus pandemic. Due to government guidance, many venues have closed and tours have been canceled, removing what has become a key revenue stream for the majority of artists.
An online petition posted by musician Evan Greer asked Spotify to triple its rates permanently and make a $500,000 (£432,140) donation to the Covid-19 fund of Sweet Relief, a California-based charity that provides financial assistance to musicians and industry workers.
A spokesperson for Spotify told the Guardian: “There’s no question this is a challenging time for our creator community and we are working to assist them through MusiCares’ COVID-19 relief fund to provide much-needed assistance.”
They added that the company had made a portion of its ad inventory available for governments and charities to share information about safety during the pandemic, and supported these efforts through the CDC Foundation emergency response fund and COVID-19 solidarity response fund for WHO.
TV and the Pandemic Obsession
On the other hand, television viewership has risen as much as 60% during past crises that have forced people to stay indoors.
Around the country, out-of-home entertainment options like movie theaters, gyms, bars, and restaurants have closed their doors in an attempt to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus. As more people are choosing to stay home and practice social distancing, many are gravitating toward virus-related streaming content.
The 1995 film Outbreak, which follows the spread of a fictional Ebola-like virus and stars Dustin Hoffman, Morgan Freeman, and Rene Russo, has been one of Netflix’s top 10 most popular movies in the U.S. since March 10.
The film has climbed as high as No. 3 on the streaming service’s U.S. movie rankings; according to the ongoing tracking of Netflix’s Top 10 lists, updated daily. Days ago, Outbreak was No. 7 among all of Netflix’s most-watched programs; both TV and movies, in the U.S.
Pandemic, a Netflix docuseries released two months ago, has also seen a spike in viewership, according to our tracking. The docuseries, which first appeared on the TV top 10 list on March 14, is as of today the No. 7 most-watched TV show on the service in the U.S.
The surge in interest for Outbreak and Pandemic comes as other pandemic-related programming sees spikes elsewhere. Contagion, the 2011 thriller from director Steven Soderbergh, has climbed the iTunes charts in recent weeks. As of Tuesday afternoon, it is the second-most popular film in that service.
The audience rise in pandemic-related programming comes as a result of more people confined to their homes; amid business closures, terminations, and remote work requirements in some industries.
Coupled with the lack of sports seasons, the ratings spike up insanely. Nielsen said Monday that television viewership jumped nearly 60% during past weather crises in the U.S. that kept people home and indoors.
Of course, Netflix audiences aren’t only watching pandemic-related programming as the coronavirus spreads. The streaming service’s original movie Spenser Confidential, an action-comedy starring Mark Wahlberg and Winston Duke, has been in the first or second spots overall program since March 7.
Netflix’s reality series Love Is Blind has been among the top 4 overall programs on the service since Netflix first began releasing its Top 10 lists on Feb. 24.
Meanwhile, presumably younger Netflix viewers, who are now out of school, have been keeping the 2019 animated kids film The Angry Birds Movie 2 on the list since Feb. 28.
The Walt Disney Co. put the box-office hit Frozen 2 on its Disney Plus streaming service three months earlier than planned, “surprising families with some fun and joy during this challenging period.”
The animated film became available in the past few days on the service in the U.S, Canada, Holland, Australia, and New Zealand.
Quality control
To cope with this massive surge and to keep from “breaking the internet”, Netflix has significantly reduced the video quality of their features.
Netflix on Thursday said it would significantly cut back its streaming bandwidth in Europe to help avoid internet outages while millions of people stay home because of the coronavirus outbreak.
The decision comes after the European Union pressed Netflix and other streamers to switch from high definition to standard definition streaming to keep the continent’s internet infrastructure from crashing.
“Following the discussions between Commissioner Thierry Breton and [Netflix CEO] Reed Hastings — and given the extraordinary challenges raised by the coronavirus — Netflix has decided to begin reducing bit rates across all our streams in Europe for 30 days,” said a Netflix spokesperson.
“We estimate that this will reduce Netflix traffic on European networks by around 25 percent while also ensuring a good quality service for our members.”
YouTube follows suit
YouTube is following Netflix’s lead in cutting the quality of its video streaming from high definition to standard in the European Union, it confirmed to CNET, as the bloc’s leaders try to reduce strain on the internet during the coronavirus outbreak. Since more people are working from home and children are staying out of school, internet usage has spiked.
“We are in ongoing conversations with the regulators, governments and network operators all over Europe, and are making a commitment to temporarily default all traffic in the UK and the EU to standard definition,” the Google-owned video streaming service said in a statement.
Suspended series and its toll on advertising
The overall TV industry calendar has also been upended, thanks to the scrapping of the upfronts, the annual shoulder-rubbing of advertisers, television executives and prime-time stars.
Brian Wieser, the head of analysis and research at the media buying giant GroupM, wondered about the possible long-term effects of the pandemic on the industry.
“Will lack of advertising demand in the spring make it so pent up that when the upfronts are being negotiated, advertising will come back rapidly, or does it go away forever?” he asked. “Right now odds don’t look great, but nobody really knows.”
Warner Bros. has halted production on more than 70 television series. Netflix has suspended production on all scripted series and films for at least two weeks.
In addition to that, the much-awaited Netflix Naija has been put on hold; much to the devastation of Nollywood.
