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Ampere Analysis: Isolated Consumers Turning to Romance Content
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With a vast majority of Americans locked down during the novel coronavirus pandemic, London-based data and analytics firm Ampere Analysis is keeping a close eye on what consumers are streaming at home.
And it turns out romance content is among the bigger go-to categories for SVOD consumers right now.
Romance content has long been a safe choice for SVOD platforms, and at the end of 2019, it was the No. 1 category in eight countries, accounting for nearly 30% of SVOD catalog content, according to Ampere data shared March 31. It was second or third in another 10 markets as well. And those figures have held up during the COVID-19 outbreak.
“As the overall volume of content on SVODs has increased since the outbreak of COVID–19 to capitalize on isolated audiences’ need for entertainment, so romance’s role within the SVOD services‘ offer has grown,” Ampere analyst Peter Ingram wrote in a blog post. “In sixteen markets tracked by Ampere — including Germany, Spain and Italy — romance accounted for the highest percentage of the content volume increase since the beginning of 2020, appealing to the genre’s core audiences as they are impacted by the health crisis.”
One potential surprise is the demographics watching romance content: 18- to 24-year-olds and 25- to 34-year-olds are watching more romance than the average consumer, outpacing older age groups. Romance consumers also over-index compared to average consumers among those in working part-time, or responded to Ampere’s analysis as a full-time student. “Strong levels of interest can also be seen in unemployed respondents and full-time homemakers,” Ingram wrote.
“SVOD platforms are providing consumers whose education and livelihood are impacted by the virus, as well as those whose status causes them to spend more time at home, with the kind of escapism that is hoped will translate into continued and increased SVOD usage in the future.”
