Editor’s note: This iteration of The Gauge includes methodology changes to more accurately differentiate between Hulu Live and Hulu SVOD viewing. This change does not reflect a change in consumption. Rather, it reflects how viewing credits are reflected. The net impact is approximately half a share point, impacting both Hulu SVOD and streaming overall.
Total TV usage increased 2% in October, supported by a 9.4% increase in broadcast viewing. While October’s seasonal uptick is nothing special, this year’s increase was achieved without the benefit of a strong new programming schedule. With no new scripted programming, the growth in broadcasting was almost entirely due to sports programming.
The NFL’s solid schedule and MLB’s World Series were the primary drivers of a 15% increase in sports viewership across broadcast channels, making October the third consecutive month of increased broadcasts. This was also the largest increase in broadcasts since January 2023. The increase in sports viewing has also attracted an influx of younger viewers, with broadcast viewership among 18-24 year olds increasing by 15%. However, on a year-over-year basis, total broadcast viewership decreased by 5.6%, and the sports genre decreased by 8%.
The cable industry benefited from double-digit growth across news and sports genres (17% and 19%), with genre-topping news capturing 21.8% of cable viewing. Although these increases increased viewership by 0.9%, it was not enough to keep up with overall TV trends, with viewership down 0.3 share points to 29.5% for the month, which was the lowest on cable so far. This was the smallest share in the category.
In a reversal of the trend from broadcasting, streaming regained market share for the third month in a row, but usage remained roughly flat (-0.6%) from September. However, without the methodology change described above, the equity loss would have been only 0.4 instead of 0.9. While usage was mostly stable across platforms, some unique data nuggets emerged in October.
“Suits” continued to be the top show, but viewership was down by one-third from September.
- suit continued to be the top program, but viewership was down by one-third from September. Netflix, which along with Peacock brings you Suits, maintained eight of the top 10 streaming titles in October.
- Disney+ viewership increased by 1.5%, keeping it ahead of the other two top streaming titles. Bluey and elemental.
- Amazon Prime Video usage increased by 1% and continues to peak on Thursday due to NFL games.
Barring the usual influx of new scripted content this fall, abnormal TV consumption trends are likely to continue into the mid-to-late first quarter of 2024. It will be interesting to see if usage spikes at that point. It’s a departure from the trends we’re used to seeing from that time of year.
October Data Trends by Brian Fuhrer
The gauge provides monthly macro analysis of viewer viewing behavior across major television distribution platforms including broadcast, streaming, cable and other sources. A breakdown of the major individual streaming distribution companies is also included. The graph itself shows total TV usage by month, broken down by viewing share by category and by individual streamer.
Methodology and FAQ
Gauge data comes from two separately weighted panels that are combined to create a graphic. Nielsen’s streaming data comes from the subset of TV households with streaming meters enabled within the National TV panel. Linear TV sources (broadcast and cable) and total usage are based on viewing from Nielsen’s entire TV panel.
All data is based on the time period of each displayed source. Data representing broadcast month is based on his Live+7 viewing during the reporting period (Note: Live+7 includes live TV viewing plus viewing up to 7 days later for linear content. ).
“Other” in the gauge includes all other television usage that does not fit into the broadcast, cable, or streaming categories. This primarily includes all other tuning (unmetered sources), unmetered video on demand (VOD), audio streaming, gaming and other device usage (DVD playback).
Starting in May 2023, Nielsen began using Streaming Content Ratings to identify original content distributed by the platforms reported on that service and reclassify content viewed via cable set-top boxes . This viewing is a credit to the stream and the streaming platform that delivered it. It will also be removed from other categories that were previously reflected. Content that is not identified as original within the streaming content rating and is viewed through a cable set-top box will continue to be included with other content.
Streaming platforms listed as “Other Streaming” include high-bandwidth video streaming on TVs that are not separately categorized. Apps designed to deliver live broadcasts and cable (linear) programming (VMVPD or MVPD applications such as Sling TV or Charter/Spectrum) are excluded from “Other Streaming.”
Linear streaming (defined by aggregation of views to vMVPD/MVPD apps) is excluded from the streaming category as broadcast and cable content viewed through these apps is credited to their respective categories. This methodology change was implemented in the February 2023 interval.
Linear streaming via vMVPD apps (Hulu Live, YouTube TV, etc.) is excluded from the streaming category. “Hulu SVOD” and “YouTube Main” within the streaming category refer to platform usage that does not include linear streaming.