Nationwide shutdown has led to Indians spending more time on their mobile devices as per the recent data released by viewership measurement BARC India and global measurement data analytics company Nielson.
Week one itself has seen the figures shoot up with time spent on gaming clocking 11 per cent to 169 minutes per user as report that released over video conferencing by Sunil Lulla, CEO, BARC India, and Dolly Jha, country leader, Nielsen Global Media, South Asia on Friday. Overall, the time spent on smartphones per user has gone up by 6.2 per cent, a jump of 1.5 hours.
Gamings numbers have seen an unprecedented rise. While the number of users saw a decent 2% increase, the time spent on gaming went up by 11% to 169 minutes per users/week.
“We are living through unprecedented times. Physical social distancing seems to have led to a phenomenal growth in virtual social togetherness with an almost 20% increase in time spent per user on chats, social media and news in the last one week. And we anticipate this to grow further,” said Jha of Nielsen Global Media, South Asia.
Terming January as the ‘pre-Covid period’, the report compared it with the‘Covid disruption period’ in view of the recent shutdown in its first week. BARC is the official reference on television measurement in India, and Nielsen runs a 12,000 strong smartphone panel passively to analyse smartphone behaviour.
Nielsen smartphone panel’s coverage covered the urban population, which exceeds one lakh people. The target group for BARC was the New Consumer Classification System (NCCS) 2+ years, while it was NCCC ABC 15-44 years Android smartphone users for Nielsen smartphone panel.
Smartphone users spend more time on OTT, social networking and gaming. While 15-24 years and 25-34 year age group users have increased their screen time by 7% and 3%, it’s the 35-44 year age group, who have started spending 11% more time on their mobile screens.