Spending more time on the couch with your family? You're not alone and it's driving a ratings boost
Here's one side effect of coronavirus the medical experts haven't yet mentioned: it is spurring families to plop down on the couch to watch television together – in some cases, for the first time.
"Before this, we didn't ever watch TV together," says Emma McCormack, a technology sector worker and mother of three in Sydney's Hunters Hill. "The kids are usually on YouTube, I watch something on my iPad, and my husband Dave might sit down with the boys to watch sport.
In the weeks since Australia went into various stages of lockdown on March 16, prime-time audiences are up 13.2 per cent compared to the weeks before lockdown. Year on year it's a smaller lift of 4.9 per cent, but in every other timeslot numbers are up by between 24.5 and 50.2 per cent compared to a year ago.
Audiences are up in all demographics, but younger viewers are conspicuous in their return to free-to-air programming.Darrian TraynorMasterChef this week have shown , there's also a renewed appetite for programs the whole family can watch together.
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