Broadcast, cable viewing bounce back in August
Broadcast, cable viewing bounce back in August
The return of football brought a predicted bounce for these TV sources, according to Nielsen.
The balance pans are beginning to tilt a bit. That’s the conclusion to draw from the August edition of The Gauge, Nielsen’s monthly report on which TV sources are responsible for the largest shares of overall viewing. Streaming has reigned supreme all summer, but there was a hint of hope for broadcast and cable in the month of August, according to the numbers.
Key Details:
- Bounce back: For the first time since April, cable and broadcast added viewership share.
- Football to the front: The Texas vs. Ohio State game on Fox on Aug. 30 drew 16.6 million viewers.
- Prime time: Prime Video was the only streamer to gain viewership share during the month.
Per Nielsen’s data, broadcast and cable combined to add a full share point of overall TV viewing in the month of August, the first time since April that their shares of viewing have grown instead of contracted. Cable comprised 22.5% of all TV watched in the month of August, and broadcast accounted for 19.1%. Streaming was still the most dominant source of viewing overall during the month, with 46.4% of all TV viewing going to streaming platforms.
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Broadcast’s 19.1% of all TV viewing was its largest share since May, and the return of college football was the big reason why. ABC had three college football telecasts that topped 10 million viewers each, but the real winner of the month was the Ohio State Buckeyes vs. Texas Longhorns game, which drew an audience of 16.6 million to Fox.
Cable’s increase of 0.3 share points over July was also largely attributable to college football. Cable sports viewing jumped 30% in August compared to the month prior and represented over 9% of all cable viewership, according to Nielsen. Viewership in the 18-49 age bracket in the final week of August made that week the strongest of the month for cable.
Time spent streaming was down more than 4% in August, but it wasn’t all bad news. Prime Video still gained .01 share points to finish the month at 3.9% of all TV watched, which Nielsen attributes to its stream of an NFL preseason game, as well as the return of its original drama series “The Summer I Turned Pretty.”
Netflix commands the list of top streaming programs for the month of August, with “Wednesday,” “KPop Demon Hunters, “The Hunting Wives,” and “Sullivan's Crossing” taking the top four slots in the most-watched streaming programs of the month. Altogether, these shows piled up 22 billion viewing minutes through the month.
Kids are heading back to school in August, which led to a 2% overall decline in TV viewership during the month. It’ll be fascinating to see what kind of results September’s report holds; football should drive viewership back up again, but how will YouTube’s offering of an opening Friday NFL game on Sept. 5 tip viewership in favor of streaming during the month? We’ll just have to wait a few weeks to find out, but for now broadcast and cable can enjoy a moment of temporary success thanks to Nielsen’s data.
Prime Video
Prime Video is a subscription video streaming service that includes on-demand access to 10,000+ movies, TV shows, and Prime Originals like “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” “Jack Ryan,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “The Boys,” and more. Subscribers can also add third-party services like Max, Showtime, STARZ, and dozens more with Prime Video Channels. Prime Video also offers exclusive live access to NFL Thursday Night Football.