ITV‘s virtual Grand National took center stage at the beginning of April, attracting over 4.8m viewers and raising £2.6m for the NHS. With the actual race postponed due to Covid19, the virtual race was aired as an alternative. The CGI race has been broadcast for the past three years with little exposure but was by more than 4.8m viewers at its peak. The race also resulted in over £2.6m donated to NHS Charities Together, as the bookmakers agreed to donate from the profits made. Read more about it here.

Channel 4 have announced the launch of its new free ad-creation service, during the Covid19 pandemic to encourage more brands to make use of TV advertising. The initiative has been created to combat the issues brands may have in accessing their usual production during lockdown. The latest move by Channel 4 will involve ‘4Creative’ working with external production companies The Outfit and Sassy films to produce the ads. The service is available for any brand that books a new campaign (with a spend of £100,000+) between now and August. The production value is capped at £20,000 per project. You can find out more about the incentive here.

The TV marketing body Thinkbox have revealed the latest UK figures for TV viewing since lockdown began. The latest research shows that 24% year on year to an average of 3 hours and 40 minutes a day per viewer, with shared TV viewing increased by 37% since lockdown was implemented. BARB have also reported that viewing of TV news content has increased by a staggering 124% during the first three weeks of lockdown. Learn more about it here.

Spotify have released its latest figures as the music-streaming platform gained 6 million subscribers in the first quarter of 2020. Initial concerns over how the Covid-19 crisis could affect listening habits have been reduced for now as Spotify has reached 130 million paid subscribers, the figures fell into the higher end of what have been predicted before the virus outbreak. Read more about it here.

Finally, following on from the positive feedback Boutique received on the Media Market report released in March, we have updated our findings to summarise how media consumption has continued to develop in April, as a result of the pandemic. The report also highlights how the role of the media has changed for audiences and why, find out more in last month’s research here.