November marked a fourth consecutive month of growth for broadcast, as the category added 0.3 points to tie its highest share of 2023 (January) with 24.9% of overall TV usage. Month-over-month, broadcast usage was up 7% in November, largely propelled by the week of Thanksgiving when usage jumped 18.4%.
Broadcast sports viewership was 21% higher in November versus October, leading the popular genre to account for one-third (33%) of all broadcast consumption. While overall broadcast usage decreased 5.3% (-0.8 pts.) on a yearly basis, viewership to broadcast sports was up 2.8% compared with 2022.
Due to cable usage representing the smallest increase in November (+1.3%), the category gave up 1.2 share points to finish the month at a category-low 28.3% of TV. The feature film genre demonstrated typical seasonal lifts (+26%) and accounted for the largest portion of cable consumption at 19%. Cable news viewing slipped slightly (-0.6% vs. October) and finished at 18.4% of all cable usage, while monthly sports viewership dropped 16%.
Cable usage in November was 13% lower than 2022 levels, and the category has lost 3.5 share points on a year-over-year basis.
Despite a 4.3% monthly lift in streaming usage in November, the larger increase in overall TV consumption forced a loss of 0.5 share points for the streaming category, bringing it to 36.1% of TV. Similar to broadcast, streaming usage peaked during the holiday week when viewing jumped over 10% compared with October levels.
Streaming platform and content highlights include:
- Peacock represented the largest usage increase, with a 23% increase in viewing (+0.2 pts.) that was driven largely by football coverage and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, leading it to a platform-high 1.3% of TV.
- Netflix exhibited an 8.6% increase in usage and added 0.2 share points, finishing the month at 7.4% of TV usage. The Netflix limited series, All the Light We Cannot See, was the only original title ranked among the top 10 streaming programs in November, with 2.1 billion viewing minutes.
- TubiTV viewership was up 8.3% in November to notch a platform-best 1.4% of TV usage.
- Bluey on Disney+ claimed the top streaming title with 3.8 billion viewing minutes, followed by Grey's Anatomy (3.7B) on Netflix, Suits (3.3B) on Netflix and Peacock, and Friends (3.0B) on Max.
Linear (live TV) streaming via MVPD (multichannel video programming distributors) and vMVPD (virtual multichannel video programming distributors) apps represented 6.4% of total television usage in October. Linear streaming is included in the appropriate broadcast or cable category, and is not included in the streaming category.
About The Gauge™
The Gauge™ is Nielsen's monthly snapshot of total broadcast, cable and streaming consumption that occurs through a television screen. The Gauge is underpinned by Nielsen's National TV measurement service and Nielsen Streaming Platform Ratings, the latter of which provides audience measurement data that details the amount of time consumers spend streaming and on which platforms. This broad look at platform usage provides complimentary insights to Nielsen Streaming Content Ratings, which details viewing to SVOD content at the title, program and episode levels. By leveraging Nielsen's geographically representative panel of real people and big data, and showcasing both micro and macro-level data sets, The Gauge provides the industry with a holistic view of the content that audiences are watching, as well as when and by whom.
The latest edition of The Gauge is always available at www.nielsen.com/thegauge.
About Nielsen
Nielsen shapes the world's media and content as a global leader in audience measurement, data and analytics. Through our understanding of people and their behaviors across all channels and platforms, we empower our clients with independent and actionable intelligence so they can connect and engage with their audiences—now and into the future. Nielsen operates around the world in more than 55 countries. Learn more at www.nielsen.com and connect with us on social media (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram).
SOURCE Nielsen
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