Coronavirus Drives European Hunger For News

With the world in the grips of a pandemic and the crisis being described by some governments as the most significant since World War Two, the need for accurate and up to date news has rarely been higher. This hunger for information is reflected in a recent Comscore analysis of visits to general news sites and apps in Europe.

As our infographic shows, when comparing visits at the start of the year to mid-March, Italy, the worst-hit European country, has experienced by far the biggest increase of the countries featured - a rise of 142 percent. An increase in all internet traffic has been observed globally, with Netflix for example reducing its streaming quality to lessen the burden on the system. With the same background, today's planned launch of Disney+ in France has also been delayed at request of the government.