• by Wayne Friedman , 8 hours ago

Although broadcast/cable networks picked up some minor share viewing gains in August versus July, Nielsen’s Total TV/Streaming Snapshot continued trending in its long-term direction -- with streaming gaining share and broadcast and cable declining.

The broadcast/cable decline was higher compared to August 2024, when NBC had the top 19 broadcast telecasts in August as a result of the Paris Olympics and MSNBC took the top 11 cable telecasts as a result of the Democratic National Convention.

Streaming climbed to a 46.4% share last month versus 41% the year-ago monthly period.

Broadcast sank below the 20% mark (19.1%) vs. 22% a year ago, while cable went lower to 22.5% (versus 26.3% a year ago).

Broadcast and cable saw slight gains versus July (at 18.4% and 22.2%, respectively) resulting from the return of highly rated college football action on Fox Television Network and ESPN. Streaming was at a 47.3% share in July.

NBCUniversal's Peacock took a significant hit -- only getting to 1.4% share versus August 2024, when it had the Paris Olympics (2.1%).

Three major digital-first premium streamers improved versus a year ago -- led by YouTube, now at 13.1% share (versus 10.6% a year ago) followed by Netflix with 8.7% (versus 7.9%) and Prime Video, at 3.9% (versus 3.1%).

Netflix had the top four streaming titles for the month -- “Wednesday,” “KPop Demon Hunters,” “The Hunting Wives” and “Sullivan’s Crossing” -- for a combined 22 billion minutes.

Two leading FAST channels (free ad-supported/streaming channels) also moved higher, with Roku Channel at 2.8% versus 1.7% a year ago and Tubi at 2.2% versus 1.8%.

At the same time, legacy TV-network based media companies' premium streaming share remained at basically at the same levels versus a year ago.

Disney's combined streaming efforts were at 4.6% share versus a year before, with Disney+ at 2.3% and Hulu at 2.4%, to total 4.7%.

Paramount came in at a 2.0% share for all its streaming efforts, compared to August 2024 when Paramount+ (at 1.1%) and Pluto TV (at 0.7%) were combined for a 1.8%.

Warner Bros. Discovery (HBO Max/Discovery+) combined for a 1.4% share. In 2024, when Max had 1.3% share.

No results from Nielsen were available for Discovery+.