Streaming accounted for two-fifths of all total television consumption in the United States last month, according to the latest report from Nielsen.
In its monthly “The Gauge” report for July 2024, Nielsen said streaming accounted for 41.4 percent of all TV viewing, fueled in part by the start of the 2024 Summer Olympic Games.
While the Olympics started late in July — there were only three days of competitions in the month, with the event spilling into early August — “the impact the Games had on TV viewing was evident,” Nielsen said on Tuesday.
Total TV usage increased more than 3 percent when compared to July 2023, and was up 2 percent on a sequential basis. Broadcast viewing ticked upward to 20.3 percent of all TV consumption time, an increase of 5 percent compared to July 2023. Nielsen said broadcast TV had 22 percent of viewing in the first week of the Olympic Games, with NBC recording 19 million viewers on July 28 alone.
Peacock, which offered live and replay coverage of all Olympic events, grew its share of the TV space to 1.5 percent, Nielsen said. It was the second-best month for Peacock as measured by Nielsen, with viewers attracted to features like Peacock’s whip-around Olympics channel called “Gold Zone,” multiview features for certain competitive events and the ability to track and follow key competitions. Peacock also offered simulcasts of NBC, CNBC, USA Network, E! and the Golf Channel when those networks were offering live coverage of Olympic events.
Amazon’s Prime Video saw its share rise to 3.4 percent of all total TV time, while The Roku Channel increased to 1.6 percent of total TV time, Nielsen said. The top streaming video service in terms of TV consumption remained YouTube at 10.4 percent, followed by Netflix at 8.4 percent.
Nielsen said July held four of the top 10 most-streamed days on record, with 10 titles notching more than 1 billion minutes streamed.
Cable TV viewing was relatively flat in July when compared to the prior month. An uptick in cable news viewership spurred by the Republican National Convention and the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump was offset by declines in entertainment and lifestyle cable networks. The news genre was up 23 percent compared to June and 52 percent on a year-over basis, Nielsen said.
