Francisco Carvajal
Confinement and the need for reliable information triggered audience growth. A study by Kantar Ibope Media that compares the week of March 1 to 15 with that of March 16 to 26, when quarantines started, reveals that in Latin America the audience grew 25% and that people are watching 50 extra minutes of television.
Peru, that was the first country in quarantine, was also the one that reflected the greatest audience growth: 42%. Colombia grew 35%; Guatemala 34%; Ecuador 28%; Argentina 24%; Paraguay 35%; Chile, Brazil, Costa Rica and Panama 21%; and Uruguay 18%.
“The population has the need for information, but not any kind of information, accurate and reliable information,” emphasized Francisco Carvajal, CEO of Kantar Ibope Media´s Pacific cluster. He added that another study, conducted in 2019, revealed that the increase of fake news made trust in traditional media increase by 80%. “TV has consolidated itself as a reliable source and now we have this confinement”.
Not only do people watch more news, but also more novelas and entertainment programs. There are between 20% and 30% more young people watching television, and the stay in front of the screen has added an extra hour in some countries.
With the current tune-in levels, television is a better window for channels to promote their upcoming programming and for advertisers to continue next to consumers with optimistic messages for the future.
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