Virgin Media data reveals major shift in how people are watching TV during lockdown

Football is being watched by even more people than it was before pandemic stopped matches

A family gather around the television to watch Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson give a televised message to the nation in Hartley Wintney, west of London on May 10, 2020, as the government sets out it's roadmap to ease the national lockdown due to the novel coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic (ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP via Getty Images)

The UK has turned to streaming TV to get them through the coronavirus lockdown, according to new data.

On-demand television shows and films surged by nearly a third during the process, Virgin Media has said.

And even viewers of traditional TV has gone up too. Everything from news programming to football has seen more viewers than before the lockdown began, the same data shows.

The extra time spent watching television amounts to an extra 41 minutes each day, on average, Virgin Media said.

The busiest day for watching was Saturday, 28 March, Virgin Media said, soon after the lockdown began. TV channels and apps were up 17 per cent and 42 per cent respectively compared with the preceding Saturdays, Virgin Media said.

In the early part of lockdown, people spent 29 per cent more time watching video streaming apps such as Netflix and YouTube, it said. That data is limited to Virgin Media's own boxes, and so does not account for people watching those apps through other platforms.

The numbers of people watching football matches also surged, when compared with similar times before matches had to be called off because of the coronavirus outbreak. The number of people watching Manchester City play Arsenal, for instance, was up 47 per cent when compared with the same match the previous two years.

"Lockdown has certainly seen a leap in TV viewing across the nation," said David Bouchier, chief digital entertainment officer for Virgin Media.

"Whether tuning in to the latest news or catching up on favourite movie or TV series, our customers have been glued to their television sets throughout lockdown to stay informed and entertained."

Virgin Media, along with other TV and broadband networks, has been hit by some major outages through the lockdown period, with one problem relatively early in lockdown taking service down for hours. Despite those high-profile issues, Ofcom has said that service has been largely as fast as normal, despite the changes in usage.