NEW YORK—With a pandemic disrupting much of the nation’s regular routines in 2020, there was a corresponding impact on media consumption by Americans. Indeed, eMarketer says in its recent report on media that the upheaval caused by the pandemic led to “even more time spent with digital media than we anticipated.”

According to the research firm, U.S. adults spent an average of 7 hours, 50 minutes (7:50) per day with digital media last year, a 15 percent increase from 2019. That growth will mostly be retained in 2021, eMarketer noted in its report, “U.S. Time Spent with Media 2021 Update.”

Who were the big media winners in 2020, according to eMarketer? (Note, traditional media includes newspapers, magazines, radio and standard TV.)

It turns out that time spent with connected TV (CTV) increased 33.8 percent to 1:17 per day in 2020. “This was largely driven by the explosive popularity of subscription OTT (over the top) services, where time spent among U.S. adults increased by a nearly identical 33.9 percent to 1:12 minutes per day,” eMarketer said. “Among subscription OTT users, average time spent skyrocketed to 1:50 per day. Smartphone time also increased substantially last year, climbing 16.6 percent.”

Time spent with digital video, smartphones, CTV, subscription OTT, and digital audio will maintain their gains and continue claiming even more time going forward in many cases, eMarketer predicted. But, at the same time, traditional TV, nearly every social network, tablets, and desktops/laptops will give back some of their 2020 gains.

The research firm also noted that, early in the pandemic, it expected digital audio to have “a very rough year,” as a direct result of the loss of commuting time. This loss was expected to constrain growth dramatically. “It didn’t turn out that way; time spent with digital audio increased 8.3 percent to 1:29 per day,” eMarketer said. “And it’s expected to increase another 4.8 percent this year.”

Additional information provided in the new eMarketer report on media includes: updates and analysis of the final 2020 U.S. time spent with media numbers, along with a 2021 forecast for the same metrics. The analysis also describes the pandemic’s impact last year and explores how its eventual ebbing will affect 2021’s figures.

In the report, special attention is paid to TV, connected TV, OTT, digital audio, and social media.