• by Wayne Friedman , April 15, 2025

Although there was an expected seasonal decline in March (6%), streaming platforms boosted their share to 43.8%, a new record (up from 43.5% in February), according to the Nielsen Total TV/Streaming snapshot.

Nielsen says the top 10 most-watched streaming titles came from seven different platforms: Prime Video, Hulu, Disney+, Paramount+, Max, Netflix, and Apple TV+. 

The top six March streaming titles were Prime Video’s “Reacher” (6.6 billion viewing minutes); Hulu’s “Family Guy” (4.8 billion); Disney+’s “Bluey” (4.8 billion); Max’s “The White Lotus” (4.5 billion); Paramount+ “1923” (3.9 billion); and Netflix’s “Running Point” (3.7 million).

The top streaming platform, YouTube, added to its share -- now 12% of total TV watch-time (up from 11.6% in February).

Disney streaming (Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+) also gained to 5.0% (from 4.8%).

Max had the biggest month-to-month gain -- 6% -- due to the new season of “The White Lotus.”

Following its move to place all streaming platforms under one parent company -- as it did with Disney starting in January -- Nielsen did the same in March with Warner Bros. Discovery Streaming (Max, discovery+), at 1.5%, and Paramount Streaming (Paramount+ and Pluto) at 2.3%.

Broadcast share of Total TV/Streaming declined to a 20.5% share (from 21.2%) -- despite special big events like “The Oscars.”

Broadcast did not have the highly rated NFL football content (the Super Bowl) in March that it had in February. Overall viewership fell 9% in the month.

In contrast, cable TV witnessed a boost in March due to many programming hours of the NCAA Men’s College Basketball Event in March -- rising to 24.0% from 23.2%.