• by Wayne Friedman , August 19, 2021

Nielsen’s measured streaming TV usage data, under its new Gauge metric, ticked up one percentage point to a 28% share from June to July -- due to more sports TV content, according to the media research company.

Nielsen's Gauge is a monthly metric showing Total Usage of Television for broadcast, streaming and cable -- in terms of total day for persons 2+.

The time period was June 28 through July 25. The Olympics ran from July 23 through August 8.

Streaming data was boosted by NBCUniversal’s coverage of the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympic games. NBCU aired Olympics content on the NBC Television Network, a number of its cable channels, and digital platforms including its Peacock streaming service.

Nielsen also says there was ample pre-Olympics content on YouTube in the period to lift the streaming category.

Streaming TV content has gained a one-percentage share point in each of the June and July periods. Nielsen launched The Gauge measurement with May monthly data.

Broadcast TV also rose July one percentage point to 24%, also partly due to the opening days of Tokyo Summer Olympics, as well the NBA Playoffs/Finals on ABC.

Cable TV, which still leads over broadcast and streaming in terms of total usage share, lost two percentage points -- from 40% in June to 38% in July.

Many of the big individual premium streaming platforms remained at the same level: Netflix, 7%; YouTube (including YouTube TV), 6%; Hulu (including Hulu + Live TV), 3%; Disney+, a 2% share; and Amazon Prime Video, 2%.

The “Other” TV category, which includes “streaming via cable set top boxes,” VOD, gaming and other devices, such as DVD playback machines, was at 10% -- up from 9% in June.

Nielsen has an additional “Other” category -- part of the overall streaming 28% share -- which encompasses other premium streaming platforms. It came in at 8% for July, the same percentage as in June.