Broadcast and cable television enjoyed a slightly higher share of overall television viewing in the United States last month compared with streaming TV platforms, according to the latest report from Nielsen.
In its “The Share” report for December, Nielsen said broadcast TV enjoyed a 22.4 percent share of total time spent with TV, while cable TV had 23.8 percent, as fans of sports and holiday movies flocked to networks like CBS, NBC and Fox for their fix.
Collectively, traditional linear TV accounted for 46.2 percent of all time spent with TV — the sum of broadcast and cable TV combined. By comparison, traditional linear TV’s share of viewership one month earlier was 48.7 percent, boosted in large part by the World Series and the November election.
Streaming platforms grew their lead over broadcast and cable TV in December, with services like Netflix, Prime Video, YouTube and Hulu growing their share to 43.3 percent in December, up 1.7 percent on a sequential basis.
YouTube continued to be the dominant streaming app of choice in December, with 11.1 percent share, but its share of the streaming TV pie was up just incrementally compared with last year. The big winner in December was Netflix, which increased its share of time spent with TV to 8.5 percent, nearly a full percentage point higher than November.
Nielsen attributed Netflix’s gains to high domestic interest in the streaming platform’s two National Football League (NFL) games, which were streamed live on Christmas Day. It was the first time Netflix offered live access to NFL, but it won’t be the last, with the streaming platform locking in Christmas Day rights for at least another few years.
Even without the NFL games, Netflix’s streaming usage would have been up 11 percent compared to November, Nielsen remarked, attributing the higher interest to the thriller film “Carry On” and the much-anticipated second season of the Korean drama “Squid Game.”
Broadcast TV also benefitted from live programming on the holidays, with Christmas and Thanksgiving Day being among the most-watched TV days of 2024, Nielsen said. The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on NBC, and three NFL games that day — one each on CBS, Fox and NBC — attracted tens of millions of viewers. Those four events were the most-watched for the month, with Netflix’s Christmas Day NFL games coming in fifth and sixth place. Nielsen’s December measurement month ran from November 25 to December 29.
Among other streaming services, Prime Video ranked third with 4 percent streaming share, while Disney-owned Hulu came in fourth place with 2.5 percent share of time spent with TV in December.
The Roku Channel topped the list of free, ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) platforms with a solid 2 percent share of time spent with TV in December, up 0.1 percent on a sequential basis. Tubi fell by the same amount to 1.7 percent share in December, while Pluto TV was under 1 percent.
