Streaming‘s recent run of dominance came to an end in September, with the return of the NFL and college football powering broadcast TV to record viewership gains.
Time spent watching broadcast TV jumped 20% from August to September, according to the latest edition of Nielsen‘s Gauge report tracking overall viewing through TV sets. That month-to-month increase is the largest since the Gauge launched in 2021, the measurement firm said.
In terms of market share, however, streaming as a category remains bigger than linear TV with 45.2% of overall viewing compared with 22.3% apiece for broadcast and cable.
NFL games on Fox, CBS and NBC occupied the top 15 slots in the broadcast TV ratings during the month, the report found, as well as the top five cable telecasts (on ESPN and the NFL Network).
Sports programming accounted for 33% of broadcast viewing overall in September, up from 11% in August.
The traditional distinctions between linear and streaming are fading away for sports, however. Amazon, which is adding the NBA this month, has seen steady growth with its exclusive streams of NFL Thursday Night Football. It drew more than 3 million minutes of viewing for a game September 11 between the Washington Commanders and the Green Bay Packers, the best tally yet for the prime-time window.
Netflix original series Wednesday returned in force during September, generating more than 7 billion viewing minutes over the course of the month. That was twice the level of No. 2 title, KPop Demon Hunters, and overall streaming saw only 10 titles cross the 1 billion minute weekly viewing mark, down from 18 in Juyly.
Netflix’s share of viewing slipped 0.4 points to finish with 8.3% of overall TV time. YouTube, despite the school year trimming its 6-to-17-year-old viewing by 2%, continued to pace the overall field with 12.6% of total viewing in September.
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