According to The Hollywood Reporter, Nielsen’s monthly rankings show that broadcast and cable television makes up less than 50% of all television viewership. This marks the very first time that linear TV viewership has dipped below 50% in the two-plus years that Nielsen has been tracking viewing time by each platform.
Broadcast networks fell to around 20% of viewership around July. Cable came in at just under 30%, dropping by one percent from the previous month. Ever since Nielsen began releasing its platform ratings each month, cable and broadcast are at an all-time low, showing just how much streaming audiences are doing. Within the first month of these rankings being released, cable and broadcast television came in at just under 65% of all television use in the United States, but now, its fallen by over 15%.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, streaming hit an all-time high in viewership, at 38.7% of all television usage. There’s another category called “other use” which notes video games and media playback on TVs which makes up about 12% of usage.
Streaming has increased each month since June, constantly growing in viewing time, according to The Hollywood Reporter. July is also the third consecutive month that streaming has been at an insane high. When Nielsen’s Gauge first began releasing monthly rankings, streaming only made up about 26% of viewership, but since then, it’s jumped up by 48%.
Within individual streamers, Netflix ruled around 8.5% of viewership coming just under YouTube at 9.2%. Tubi, Fox’s streaming service had its best month ever, coming in at 1.4%, matching HBO’s streaming service, Max.
There were a couple stand-out shows that led their respective streaming platforms in the ranking, like Suits on Peacock and Netflix being responsible for over eighteen billion minutes of viewing during July. Bluey led Disney+’s ranking, bringing in five billion minutes of viewership for the month.