• by Wayne Friedman , December 19, 2023

Although the writers' and actors' strike plagued broadcast TV platforms for the better part of the early fall season, viewing more than recovered in November. 

This pushed overall television viewership (streaming, broadcast, cable) up 5.7% in November versus October -- the highest levels since January 2023, according to Nielsen’s total day persons two years and older reading for the month.

Thanks to rising sports viewership -- up 21% in viewer usage in the month versus October -- broadcast grew 7% over October, now at 24.9% in November, its highest share of 2023 since January.

Still, long-term broadcast viewing continues to decline versus a year ago -- down 5.3% from November 2022 when it had a 25.7% share.

Also down year-over-year was the cable TV viewing category where it was at an all time low 28.3% share (versus a 31.8% share in November 2022). Cable TV did see actual usage viewing numbers rise, albeit by a small 1.3%. 

Streaming platforms added 4.3% monthly viewer usage. It now stands at a still leading 36.1% share. It was 36.6% in October. Year-ago November share for streaming was at 38.2%.

Three of the top five individual streaming companies lost some share: YouTube (9.0%); Prime Video (3.4%); and Hulu (2.7%). Disney was at the same share level (1.9%). Netflix grew to 7.4% (from 7.2% in October).

In addition to losing some share to broadcast, the big streaming category also witnessed some changes to “Other” and “Other Streaming” categories.

Content from virtual pay TV apps like YouTube TV, Sling TV, and Hulu+Live TV are in the “Other” category. This so-called ‘linear TV streaming’ viewing has been removed from the “Other Streaming” category. 

Additionally, content not identified as original coming from a streaming platform and viewed through a cable set top box is also in “Other”.

Streaming platforms listed as “Other Streaming” includes any high-bandwidth video streaming on television not individually broken out.

The “Other” category has now grown to 10.7% from 4.3% a year ago.  “Other Streaming” is now at 5.1%. It was 11.3% in November 2022.