![\"covid](\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/covid-entertainment-1.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nExplosive demand for TV content led\u00a0almost 16 million people to sign up for Netflix \u2014\u00a0more than double what the company predicted before the Covid-19 outbreak.<\/p>\n
The extended time at home also has been a chance for consumers to take new apps out for a spin, including\u00a0Disney+, Apple TV+,\u00a0Quibi\u00a0and Comcast Corp.\u2019s Peacock. Disney+ has added 28 million subscribers since December.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, as the recession causes consumers to tighten their budgets, pricey cable-TV bills will be on the chopping block. Already last quarter, the big four pay-TV providers saw an exodus of nearly 2 million customers, with AT&T Inc.\u2019s DirecTV accounting for\u00a0almost half of those cancellations:<\/p>\n
The desire to save money is boosting interest in free streaming-video services, such as Pluto TV and Tubi,\u00a0that are funded by advertisers.<\/p>\n Pluto TV\u2019s growth proved to be\u00a0the biggest bright spot in ViacomCBS Inc.\u2019s quarterly results, as the cancellation of the NCAA March Madness tournament crushed traditional network ad sales:<\/p>\n Without sports, consumers are dusting off their gaming consoles and playing for hours on end. Verizon Communications Inc. said that while video usage on its internet network was up 40%, that\u2019s nothing compared to the 200% increase in gaming.<\/p>\n Like social-media apps, online gaming can provide a sense of community \u2014\u00a0something streaming-TV apps\u00a0may\u00a0aspire to do one day\u00a0but don\u2019t yet. In-game purchases are also extending\u00a0the life of games, and they\u2019ve become a\u00a0money gusher\u00a0during the lockdown for publishers such as Electronic Arts Inc.:<\/p>\n It remains to be seen if, after all that time spent gaming and streaming from the couch, consumers will be itching to go to the movies once again.<\/p>\n Even as some states begin to reopen business, it won’t be possible to gauge any recovery for the movie-theater industry just yet because the year\u2019s biggest films have been postponed:<\/p>\n The same uncertainty hangs over theme parks. Disney plans to reopen its Shanghai park next week to a relatively small number of visitors. Normally, that resort\u2019s capacity is\u00a080,000 guests, but the local government is allowing just 30% of that, and Disney is capping ticket sales at even less at first.<\/p>\n With face masks and temperature checks,\u00a0and no more hugs from your favorite character,\u00a0it\u2019ll be a test of whether consumers still see Disney as a magical place to escape the real world \u2014 or a sad reminder of what it’s become. Some may choose to just\u00a0stay home and stream.<\/p>\n The message from the leading entertainment companies is that things\u00a0will get worse before they get\u00a0better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341034,"featured_media":232843,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[2638,12857,61855,25575,2054],"class_list":["post-351331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-apple-tv","tag-disney","tag-disney-plus","tag-electronic-arts-ea","tag-netflix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351331"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341034"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351331"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":351345,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351331\/revisions\/351345"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nNow read: What to watch on Netflix, Showmax, and Video Play this weekend<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"