The number of people watching television predictably rose in March, as people started staying at home because of COVID-19 concerns.

A Broadcasting Authority survey shows a jump of 18.2% in audiences over the previous assessment period of November 2019.

The increase, the authority said, was the highest ever, with 73.2% of the population watching television at some time of the day.

Conversely, the number of people listening to radio dropped by 12% to 44.7%, the third-lowest level since February 2014 when it was 43.7%.

The biggest number of viewers watched TVM (41.41%), followed by ONE (17.32%), and Net TV (7.46%).

The BA said there was clear evidence that TV viewing patterns had changed.

"While in previous assessments audiences rose steadily throughout the day, this time there was a marked increase in audiences from those at mid-morning to
those at noon – in November 2019 average morning audiences amounted to approximately 12,800 while in this assessment audiences were a clear 30% more."

Daily broadcasts of COVID-19 updates raised audiences by more than twice the levels of those in November 2019 to exceed 40,000.

See the survey results in detail on pdf below.