Nielsen Says Hulu, Netflix Top Rating Charts With Highest Daily Streaming Minutes, Viewership
During Tuesday’s discussions with Cannes Lions, Nielsen shared May's streaming numbers. According to “The Gauge,” a measurement tool Nielsen introduced last week, 26 percent of TV consumption comes from streaming services.
Brian Fuhrer, SVP of product strategy at Nielsen, said that Hulu had the most daily viewing minutes among major services, coming in at 130. YouTube saw 128 viewing minutes, Netflix had 110, Amazon Prime Video had 97, and Disney+ saw 89.
A good explanation for Hulu coming in first place for viewing minutes is that on that platform, many shows that air on linear channels are available to stream the following day. Anyone who doesn’t have cable or DVR service may watch those shows on Hulu instead, which looks to be increasing the watch times.
More details about the demographic of Hulu’s viewers were provided by the Nielsen report. Thirty-three percent of the service’s viewers are 18-to-34 years old. Of all of the services included in the report, Hulu took the largest percentage of viewers from that specific age group. The report indicates that 57% of Hulu’s viewers are female. Nielsen’s data shows that women generally stream more than men. Fuhrer predicts that, in the future, streaming providers offering live sports may draw in more diverse demographic figures.
Hulu
Hulu is a video streaming service that gives access to thousands of full seasons of exclusive series, hit movies, kids shows, and Hulu Originals like “Only Murders in the Building,” and “The Handmaid’s Tale.”
The number of viewers each service received in May does look different, however. On average, Netflix received more than twice as many unique viewers as Hulu during the month.
As the world returns to normal following the pandemic, subscriber growth is slowing down.
Despite the slow in subscriber growth, video-on-demand subscriptions are dominating the streaming market by bringing in 52% of streams. Behind that is ad-supported video-on-demand services at 27%, while MVPDs and virtual MVPDs bring in 10% of streams. Linear streaming comes in last, but Nielsen reports that more consumers are interested and are causing those numbers to rise slowly.
Netflix
Netflix is a subscription video streaming service that includes on-demand access to 3,000+ movies, 2,000+ TV Shows, and Netflix Originals like Stranger Things, Squid Game, The Crown, Tiger King, and Bridgerton. They are constantly adding new shows and movies. Some of their Academy Award-winning exclusives include Roma, Marriage Story, Mank, and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.
It’s worth noting that Nielsen’s data does not provide give us the full picture when it comes to streaming numbers. The company looks at television viewership in the United States for Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, Amazon, and Disney+. This leaves out many other streaming services, as well as non-TV devices like tablets and laptops.