Pandemic Driving Big Growth in Daytime TV Watching, Comscore Says

Daytime TV watching levels are up almost 10% at 6 a.m. compared with a year ago, and growth continues through morning and daytime, Comscore said Tuesday. Data comes from New York, Dallas, Atlanta, Sacramento and Indianapolis markets, it said. In 2019, viewership levels peaked at around 8 a.m. and stay flat through much of the day. The COVID-19 pandemic seems to have changed things, viewership growing until noon and plateauing then, it said. The biggest jumps are during "commute-heavy hours" of 7-9 a.m. There's big daytime growth in smaller markets, with Wilkes Barre-Scranton-Hazleton in Pennsylvania rising more than 30% for local newscasts during daytime, early fringe, prime access and late news periods.