• by Wayne Friedman , Yesterday

September’s NFL and college football programming gave broadcast TV its largest month-to-month viewing share gain ever -- 20% -- since Nielsen first started its Total TV/Streaming Snapshot of total day viewing for persons two years and older in May 2021.

While broadcast tied cable TV with a 22.3% share last month, broadcast was still down from its 22.6% share level in September 2024. In May 2021, broadcast had a 25% share (versus cable at 39%).

NFL games registered the top 15 broadcast programs in September. Sports viewership tripled in September, amounting to 33% of broadcast total viewing in the month versus 11% in August.

Cable TV was two-tenths of a share point down in September versus the month before -- 22.3% versus 22.5%.

Cable was also down from its 26.1% share in the year-ago September period.

Streamers witnessed a seasonally expected month-to-month drop -- 45.2% versus August’s 46.4% -- but still up from 41.0% in September 2024.

YouTube still dominates all streaming apps with a 12.6% share up from 10.6% share in September 2024. In second place is Netflix with an 8.3% share, versus 7.9% a year ago.

Looking month-to-month, YouTube and Netflix slipped some share -- also due to the high-octane start of the fall season for broadcast and cable.

YouTube'a share dropped five-tenths of a percent, while Netflix share slipped by four-tenths of a percent.

Nielsen says there were fewer streaming programs exceeding one billion weekly viewing minutes in September -- 10 titles -- than recent previous months. In July there were 18 titles.

With back-to-school activity in full swing in September, YouTube witnessed a 2% decline in 6- to-17-year-old viewers.