Tracking Trends in the Media and Entertainment Industry
The media industry is constantly evolving due to changing consumer consumption patterns, consolidation and new business practices that become standard. Media leaders need the most up-to-date data on industry trends to best decide how to respond to them. But fresh, reliable figures are hard to come by.
To help media and entertainment leaders stay current on the need-to-know consumer behaviors and sentiment, Morning Consult is tracking the most important media consumption trends through a monthly survey of U.S. adults.
Find a more detailed methodology for this monthly tracker below.
Key Takeaways
Podcast listenership is holding fairly steady among U.S. adults. The share of adults who reported listening to a podcast at least once in August was 45%, down 3 percentage points from July but nearly even with the 44% reported in May. However, high-profile podcasts like “Anything Goes With Emma Chamberlain” are no longer exclusive to Spotify and could help engage casual podcast listeners in the coming months.
Time spent playing video games has been relatively flat, but it is likely to increase soon. In August, 63% of adults said they spent time playing video games in the past month, nearly even with rates for June and July (65% each). But this figure will likely jump as summer comes to a close: In 2022, the share who reported spending any time gaming increased by 5 points between August and October.
The share spending $15 or less on video streaming is up. Last month, 31% of adults reported spending this amount on streaming, up from 25% in July. This likely reflects some swapping out of pricier subscriptions with less costly ones. For example, in August Paramount+ launched a limited-time annual deal plan at over 50% off.
Video Streaming Service Usage
Video Streaming Service Spending
Consumers Who Stream Music
Consumers Who Listen to Podcasts
Preferred News Medium
Trust in News Sources
Average Time Spent Playing Video Games
Esports Viewership
Metaverse Awareness
Source of This Data
Methodology
The Morning Consult Media and Entertainment Monthly Trend Tracker relies on Morning Consult’s proprietary survey research capabilities. The interviews are conducted online, and the data is weighted to approximate a representative sample of U.S. adults based on gender, educational attainment, age, race and region. Results from the full survey have a monthly sample size of 2,200 U.S. adults and an unweighted margin of error of +/-2 percentage points.
About Morning Consult
Morning Consult is a global decision intelligence company changing how modern leaders make smarter, faster, better decisions. The company pairs its proprietary high-frequency data with applied artificial intelligence to better inform decisions on what people think and how they will act. Learn more at morningconsult.com.
Kevin Tran is the senior media & entertainment analyst on the Industry Intelligence team, where he conducts research, authors analyst notes and advises leaders in the media & entertainment industry on how to apply insights to make better business decisions. Prior to Morning Consult, Kevin was a media analyst at Variety Intelligence Platform, Variety’s premium subscription service. Kevin graduated from the Haas School of Business undergraduate program at the University of California, Berkeley. @ktran223
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