Streaming Surpasses Linear Viewing For The First Time

by Wayne Friedman , August 18, 2022

Streaming viewing in July surpassed both cable and broadcast -- in terms of share of total day viewing -- with a leading 34.8% share for the first time since the launch of Nielsen's “The Gauge” over a year ago.

For total day viewing for persons two years of age and older, cable is now in second place with a 34.4% share, while broadcast has a 21.6% share.

Compared to a year ago, streaming is now 22.6% higher than in July 2021 when it had a 28.3% share -- while cable is down 8.9% for the same period (a 37.7% share in July 2021), and broadcast lost 9.8% (from 23.8% a share).

Nielsen notes that the month of July, as part of the summer TV season, experiences the usual dips with legacy TV platforms. For this period, broadcast was down 3.7% versus the previous month of June, while cable lost 2%. In particular, broadcast sports, with the NBA and NHL playoffs in June, dropped 41% in July, while total streaming was up 3.2% compared to June.

On a month-to-month basis -- versus June 2022, Netflix had stronger results, partly driven by the 18 billion viewing minutes of a new season of "Stranger Things." Netflix is now at a 8.0% share, up 7.7% in June.

YouTube came in at 7.3% (from 6.9% in June), followed by Hulu, now at 3.6% (3.3%); Amazon Prime Video, 3.0% (2.9%); Disney+, 1.8% (2.0%) and HBO Max, 1.0% (1%).

A year ago, broadcast was at 23.8% share, with cable at 37.7% -- showing declines of 9.8% and 8.9%, respectively.

Streaming is up 22.6% from its 28.3% share a year ago.

Nielsen launched The Gauge in May 2021.

broadcast networks, cable, digital, media measurement, nielsen, ratings, streaming

5 comments about "Streaming Surpasses Linear Viewing For The First Time".

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Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, August 18, 2022 at 10:03 a.m.
But Wayne, "linear TV" includes both broadcast and cable. I assume you meant that streaming beat cable---slightly----not "linear TV".
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Dan C. from MS Entertainment, August 18, 2022 at 10:56 a.m.

Considering how poor the reporting measurements are, streaming probably passed linear years ago.

Eric Fischer from HJA Strategic Consulting, August 18, 2022 at 3:03 p.m.

Is there a source that can show the % of streaming that's ad-supported? From this chart, NFLX\DIS+\AMZN PRIME = 13% of total viewership and 37% of streaming that's not ad-supported. How much of that 10.2% of "Other Streaming" is AVOD vs. SVOD? Would be interesting to see this view with only ad-supported viewership.

Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, August 18, 2022 at 4:32 p.m.

Eric, as it happens, we are preparing an Alert report for our MDI Direct and "Total TV Dimensions 2022" subscribers which has a bearing on this subject. The problem is that some linear viewing also does not feature ads---PBS and "pay cable" for example. Another issue is the relative amount of ad clutter on CTV/AVOD services relative to linear---typically the latter is higher. Which means that an hour of linear TV viewing on ad-supported channels generates more GRPs for sale to advertisers than an hour of ad-supported viewing on CTV/AVOD. I'll give you one stat to consider. We estimate that ad-supported CTV/AVOD now gets about 25-26% of all viewing by adults to ad-supported TV---meaning linear TV plus streaming. However, the disparity between the two in ad clutter, means that CTV/AVOD probably has only 15% or so of the available GRPs to sell. This will change, of course, as Netflix and Disney+ offer their ad-supported services and others---like HBO+ and Hulu convert more of their subs to AVOD offerings.

Eric Fischer from HJA Strategic Consulting replied, August 18, 2022 at 5:01 p.m.

Thanks Ed. Figured if anybody had data on this, it would be you! Look forward to seeing your findings.