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However, according to an analysis of the usage data from the TV streaming provider Zattoo for Germany, Austria and Switzerland, after just a few weeks the increased interest dropped back to the level before the outbreak of the war.
Zattoo notes that in times of crisis, there is an increase in demand for trustworthy information. In the course of this, TV is the most important source of news for the majority of the population. This is shown by the results of the Reuters Institute Digital News Survey 2021 for Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The increased interest in up-to-date information also leads to a longer period of use among TV providers. This was last observed after the outbreak of the pandemic. At Zattoo, total usage back then increased by 15% in March 2020.
It adds that this development was also observed since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. In the first week, total usage on Zattoo was 7% percent higher than the week before. This growth was mainly due to increased interest in news programmes. In the first week after the war began, the number of streamed hours of news broadcasts more than doubled, increasing by 127%. Furthermore, their share of total usage rose from 6% to 12% in the first week after the war began. This increased demand for news programmes began to decrease again from the second week, with a significant drop of more than 10% in each case compared to the previous week. After about six weeks, the number of streamed hours of news programmes was back to the level before the outbreak of the war.
Commenting on the findings, Jörg Meyer, CCO at Zattoo, said: “The evaluation of our usage figures shows once again how high the demand for up-to-date information is, especially in times of crisis. Television as a medium is one of the most important sources of news.
“However, our evaluation also shows that after just a few weeks interest has returned to a normal level. For us it was particularly interesting to find out how quickly a kind of habituation effect can be felt in the viewers”.
