It’s no surprise to anyone that the TV industry is being roiled by huge viewership changes accelerated by the pandemic. Samba TV’s new State of Viewership Quarterly Report for Q3 provides useful insights about the key trends that unfolded in the quarter, following an unprecedented first 6 months of the 2020.

Among Samba TV’s key findings:

Viewership of 27 networks* measured experienced a 7% increase in September vs. June-August, due to the election, NBA playoffs and start of the NFL season.

Total ad airings on linear TV rose 18.5% in Q3 vs. Q2. Travel was up the most (348%), with energy next at 106%. Pets and politics were both down 9% quarter to quarter.

Connected TV average daily viewership increased 255% from March to July, but was relatively flat at 3% growth from the beginning of September to the end.

Time watching TV during the daytime was up 22% in Q3 ’20 vs. Q3 ’19. September ’20 was up 11% from August. Among non news networks, TBS viewership gained the most (up 57%), followed by Cooking Channel (up 50%) and Bravo (up 36%).

The report also includes detailed viewership data on the 2 political conventions in August, including in swing states, viewership of the first presidential debate, viewership of specific sports leagues and the viewership dynamics among the 3 main national cable news networks, CNN, Fox News and MSNBC.

The full report is available for complimentary download. Samba TV obtains its viewership data from its proprietary Automatic Content Recognition software integrated with various smart TVs. The Q3 report is based on 33 billion hours of TV consumption which were projected in the U.S., U.K. and Germany.

*Networks included: ABC, Bravo, CBS, Cinemax, Comedy Central, Cooking Channel, Disney Channel, E!, CNN, ESPN, FOX, Fox News, Fox Sports 1, Food Network, FX, HBO, History, HGTV, MSNBC, MTV, NBC, Nickelodeon, Showtime, TNT, TBS, Travel Channel, USA