A NEW AGE FOR OUT-OF-HOME NEWS VIEWING ON LINEAR TV DURING ELECTION TIME

In today’s 24/7 news landscape, consumers have a plethora of programming and platforms to choose from. Even amid the debates about ways to parse fact from fiction, Americans continue to watch the news to stay up-to-date in an era of mass information and accessibility. Furthermore, people aren’t just keeping tabs of the news in their homes; they’re also watching on linear TV when they’re on the go, whether it be at work or even in a bar.

To zero in on where consumers are most apt to tune into the news when they’re away from their homes, in November 2018 after midterm election week, Nielsen fielded two surveys (one for the general population and one for the Hispanic population) to better understand out-of-home (OOH) broadcast, cable and local news live viewing behavior on linear TV among adults 18 and older. The surveys examined who these news viewers are, their reported live viewing preferences and engagement with ads.