Europeans watch most TV thanks to The Queen's Gambit

Europeans watch most TV thanks to The Queen’s Gambit

Posted Filed under

Move over North America — it now seems Europeans watch most TV thanks to The Queen’s Gambit (and a few other shows)!

Thanks to Variety (who pointed us to it) we’ve read an informative press release from Glance (Global Audience & Content Evolution, previously known as Eurodata TV Worldwide) talking about how viewing habits have changed in 2020 (and Q1 2021). In particular (it’s in the details) we now find Europeans watch most TV, ahead of North Americans.

We won’t cover all the data, but it seems:

Daily Viewing time is growing in most areas except in North America (- 8 minutes) – where it stands at a high level – and Oceania (-8 min). Europe (+15 min) and Latin America (+10 min) now are the biggest TV markets. Daily viewing time increased by 4 minutes in Asia

And what are we watching? Well it seems Europeans very much like a mix of home-grown and international content as well as the same shows they’ve always liked. Avril Blondelot, Head of Content Insight at Glance, analyses:

” 2020 didn’t alter TV viewers inclinations. Family drama, crime series and period dramas still strongly appeal to the public.”

It’s fascinating to see such shows as The Salisbury Poisonings, The Masked Singer and I can see your Voice highlighted, and who knew Van der Valk was so popular in Australia? [Vistors under 40 may like to know Van der Valk was hughoy popular in the UK from launch in 1972]

SVOD [Streaming]

Particular focus is on the growth in what they call SVOD, by which we recognise streaming. We quote the report:

2020 saw a steep progression of SVOD. Well settled in the US, it catches up in France with almost twice as much time spent every day in 2020 vs 2019. In Norway, there has been a 49% growth of the daily time dedicated to SVoD. Most watched shows on Netflix in the 4th quarter of 2020 are: The Crown in France and The Queens’ Gambit in the UK, Spain, Germany, Italy. Emily in Paris has been an international hit, although noticeably not in France.

If you’re at all interested in the evolution of TV consumption, we recommend the press release, which also covers how 2021 is evolving.