For the first time ever, broadcast and cable TV combined dropped to below 50% of total TV usage in the United States in new stats from ratings agency Nielsen for the month of July 2023.
At the same time, streaming services ranging from Netflix to YouTube accounted for 38.7% of total U.S. TV usage – its largest share to date.
Compared to a year ago, streaming has increased from a 31.5% to a 38.7% share, cable has decreased from 34.4% to 29.6%, and broadcast has shrunk from 21.6% to a flat 20%.
YouTube (9.2%), Netflix (8.5%), Hulu (3.6%) and Amazon Prime (3.4%) were the biggest streamers. 11.6% of TV usage went to ‘other’ – namely video game playing, Blu-ray/DVD disc playback, and unmeasured VOD services.
As cable cutting continues to seriously impact old media, the most-streamed titles included “Suits” on Netflix and “Bluey” on the Disney+ service. The former accounted for nearly nearly 18 billion viewing minutes, whilst the much shorter episodes of “Bluey” came in at over 5 billion minutes.
Nielsen’s estimates comprise U.S. consumer usage on TVs, including internet-connected TVs, and thus doesn’t include the full impact of streaming which also takes place heavily on laptops, tablets and phones.
Source: Nielsen
