Commentary

A Brief History Of Broadcast Time (Spent)

by Joe Mandese , December 16, 2025

It has been a little over four years since Nielsen rebooted the way it calculates share of viewing vis a vis the graphic delineation of its monthly "The Gauge" newsletter, and despite that brief history, it is touting the one released this morning as being "historic."

Specifically, it marks sports programming's share of total broadcast viewing as reaching an all-time high in November: 37%.

What makes that stat truly remarkable is that calculated on a duration basis, sports programming accounts for only 3% of all the content broadcast during the month.

While broadcast's share of total viewing has long taken a backseat to streaming in Nielsen's four-year-old aggregate view, it did manage to build on some recent momentum, boosting total viewing by 7% vs. October thanks largely to -- you guessed it -- sports programming.

"Broadcast gains were driven overwhelmingly by a 30% monthly increase in sports viewing, powered by the back-half of the MLB World Series on Fox, plus NFL and college football on ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC," Nielsen explains in this morning's release.

audience measurement, broadcasting, content, media measurement, nielsen, ratings, sports, television

5 comments about "A Brief History Of Broadcast Time (Spent)".

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Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, December 16, 2025 at 4:08 p.m.
Yep, thanks mainly to football sports was an important pillar of remaining strength for broadcast TV in November. However it's impact will, no doubt, decline as we get into the full basketball and baseball seasons and the likely average for the next twelve months will probably be around 20-25% for broadcast TV, about 9-10% for cable and less for CTV. Put all three together, weighted by their platforms' respective shares of audience, and it probably averages out for all of "TV" to around 12%. I wish that Nielsen would provide such numbers in its reports or commentaries to provide some context.
Reply

Ben B from Retired replied, December 16, 2025 at 8:57 p.m.

Well said Ed, I agree Nielsen should put the numbers out.

Tony Jarvis from Olympic Media Consultancy, December 17, 2025 at 9:31 a.m.

Ed: What about "real" football, e.g. Premier League, as opposed to the US gladiator sport? Maybe its increasing popularity and the World Cup in NA next year will effect the Sport's share a tick or two in 2026?

Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, December 17, 2025 at 10:43 a.m.

Tony, many years ago, I calculated what the mega hit sitcom, "All In The Family",added to TV's overall vieing and it came to only 6 minutes per week out of about 260 minutes viewed per person.. Point being, no single attraction -even the entire NFL season-- captures more than a small fraction of total TV usage. For example, the NFL games probably account for only 2-3% when tallied across a full year. In that context, I doubt that The Premium League would add much to the sports total--which is a survey finding subject to error, interpretation, etc.

Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, December 17, 2025 at 11:43 a.m.

Correction on my last post. I meant minutes per day, not week, in my "All In The Family" analysis.