How Covid-19 has changed the media industry in Asia

The spread of Covid-19 has crippled many industries such as tourism and airlines, yet it has also been a boon for ecommerce and food delivery services.

However, the effect of the pandemic on the region’s media and content players is less straightforward. What is clear is that it has changed media and content consumption patterns across the continent – perhaps irrevocably.

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A surge in news, education, and gaming

In March, Nielsen’s study on how Covid-19 has affected North Asian media found that television viewing and engagement numbers in February skyrocketed by as much as 57% compared to the same period in 2019 – a predictable scenario once lockdowns were put in place.

TV and online news consumption also jumped as people kept up with the latest Covid-19 developments, and then later sought out food recipes, ecommerce deals, and tips on living through lockdowns. Naturally, social media usage also spiked as more traditional shops and service providers started using its platforms to engage with buyers.

A Comscore study that surveyed Southeast Asian countries including Malaysia, Vietnam, and Singapore corresponded with Nielsen’s findings in North Asia, revealing that news sites in the region experienced a rise in traffic by as much as 36% in February compared to a month prior.

Parsing the data further, Nielsen noted that viewership of children’s programming and education shows saw the largest spikes of up to 50%, which isn’t that surprising, since many schools and universities had been conducting virtual learning sessions and parents were searching for ways to keep children entertained at home.

Across Asia Pacific, the consumption of video and gaming content has surged across all age groups. School closures have given over-the-top media and streaming services such as Hong Kong’s Viu and China’s iQiyi a boost. Similar players sought to capitalize on this, with Malaysia’s Iflix offering free membership for a few months to draw in new users and Disney offering its Hotstar streaming app for free to Singapore’s large migrant worker population.

Firms like Netflix and YouTube, on the other hand, are playing a numbers game, choosing to lower the quality of their videos so that people in areas with low bandwidth can still access their content libraries.

A survey conducted by Media Partners Asia found that mobile streaming in Southeast Asia increased by a whopping 60%, from 36.4 billion weekly minutes in mid-January to 58 billion minutes per week by April 11.

Print media and ad spend suffer

But not all of Asia’s media and content players are benefiting from this shift online.

Traditional print media across the continent have suffered major losses. Newspapers in the Philippines, India, Vietnam, and Australia have suspended operations for the time being, while Blu Inc, a major magazine publishing group in Malaysia, closed its doors for good in March.

Players who didn’t already have a digital roadmap are paying the price as Covid-19 lockdowns cripple distribution networks, and the fear of transmitting the virus sends people to online news sites instead. With social distancing expected to be the new norm even after the pandemic blows over, it is highly unlikely that companies that have “temporarily” stopped their printing presses will return.

But while one would expect digital advertising revenue to rise given the larger audience numbers, a Deloitte study found that marketers are keeping their powder dry to see if the current consumption trends hold up.

A new normal for media and content creation