• by Wayne Friedman , February 20, 2024

Boosted by ever stronger streaming viewing, Nielsen says total TV viewing climbed to a four-year high in January 2024, with usage up 3.7% from December in total day viewing for persons two years of age and up.

The month of January had nine of its highest-volume streaming days, including January 13 when Peacock's cover of its first exclusive streaming NFL playoff game aired, featuring the Kansas City Chiefs-Miami Dolphins, which resulted in 3.9 billion viewing minutes 

Overall, looking at all streaming activity, the day produced 40.78 billion viewing minutes.

Peacock rocketed up the streaming list for the month with its best result ever -- up 29% from the previous month -- to a 1.6% share of TV viewing, just behind Disney+ (1.9%) and ahead of Tubi (1.5%).

YouTube still maintains the largest share of any streaming platform at 8.6%, with its 12th consecutive month leading all streamers. Netflix remains in second place with 7.9%, followed by Prime Video with 2.8% and Hulu at 2.7%.

Overall streaming rose 4.1% over December to a continued leading 36% share, while broadcast viewing grew 7.1% (to a 24.2% share) and cable TV witnessed a 2.7% climb to 27.9%. The “other” category, 

A year ago, streaming was at 32.8% share, with broadcast at 24.9% and cable at 30.4%. 

The “other” category was at 11.8% for the most recent month (January) versus 11.2% a year ago.

This includes all other tuning sources that were not measured -- not broadcast, cable or streaming.

Unmeasured video on demand (VOD), streaming through a cable set top box, gaming and other device (DVD playback) use. Content not identified as original in streaming and viewed through a cable set top box will continue to be included in this “other” category.

In May 2023, Nielsen changed how it assigned streaming content that came through cable TV set-top boxes -- viewing now credited to streaming and to the streaming platform that distributed it. It also removed this type of viewing from the “other streaming” category.