Football Helps Prime Video and Peacock See September Surges, While ‘Bluey’ Buoys Disney+
Nielsen’s monthly Gauge report shows that streamers are increasingly comfortable with cross-platform sports offerings.
There’s a decided trend appearing in the monthly Nielsen report dubbed “The Gauge.” The data clearly shows that streaming is continuing to eat up a larger and larger share of total TV viewing, even during months that are traditionally strong for broadcast and cable TV. September is usually one of those months thanks to the return of college and professional football, but in 2024, streaming had a strong showing during the month, led by record-setting viewership by Disney+ and Prime Video.
Key Details:
- Prime Video accounted for 3.6% of total TV viewing, bolstered by “Thursday Night Football” and “The Rings of Power.”
- Disney+ rose to a record 2.5% of all TV watched thanks to Hulu titles and “Bluey.”
- Streaming usage has climbed 11% on a year-over-year basis.
All in all, September was a great month for streaming providers. Streaming accounted for 41% of all TV watched during the month, maintaining the mark it hit in August. Broadcast TV usage also jumped slightly during the month to 22.6%, while cable usage slipped a tiny bit to 26.1% of all TV watched. YouTube and Netflix remained the most-used streaming platforms overall, garnering 10.6% and 7.9% viewership shares, respectively.
Click to expand The Gauge report.
The big streaming winners for the month were Prime Video and Disney+. Prime Video saw a 12% rise in viewership during the month, the most of any service; this growth was primarily driven by the return of the NFL’s “Thursday Night Football,” as well as the second season of “Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” which was the third most-watched streaming title of the month with 4.3 billion viewing minutes.
Those programming highlights allowed Prime Video to climb to 3.6% of all TV watched during the month, a tie for its highest number ever recorded.
Disney+ set a new viewership record during the month, accounting for a 2.5% share of all TV watched. Nielsen data shows this was largely thanks to the continuing popularity of “Bluey,” which was streamed for 4.2 billion minutes during the month. The introduction of Hulu titles on the same app is also helping Disney+ gain share; a recent survey from Parrot Analytics showed that Hulu original titles were driving outsized demand and helping to lower churn on their home platform, and they’re likely doing the same on Disney+.
September’s report also held more insights for the month of August, showing just how many viewers tuned into the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. Nielsen’s data shows that NBCUniversal, including the NBC broadcast channel, cable channels like USA Network, and the Peacock streaming service combined to account for 13.4% of all TV watched during the month, beating out the previous month’s winner YouTube.
Click to expand Nielsen’s Share of TV trended graph.
September’s data shows conclusively that streaming is continuing to build market share over linear TV sources. In September 2023, streaming accounted for 38.3% of all TV watched according to that month’s Gauge report, but streaming viewership has grown 11% year-over-year since. Broadcast and cable always see a rebound during September as fans flock to broadcast networks and cable sports channels to watch NFL and college football, but this month that shift has been decidedly more muted.
Customers are clearly growing more accustomed to finding football games on streaming platforms. That’s good news for leagues and conferences who are trying to navigate the decline of cable, though it’s clearly not as good for cable distributors who rely on live sports as one of the last programming segments keeping viewers regularly engaged.
Amazon Prime Video
Amazon 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 Amazon Prime Video Channels. Prime Video also offers exclusive live access to NFL Thursday Night Football.