Streaming almost matches linear TV viewing in February
Streaming almost matches linear TV viewing in February
Despite a record-breaking Super Bowl broadcast, streaming accounted for nearly the same amount of TV viewing time as cable and broadcast put together.
February was a decidedly up-and-down month when it came to TV viewing in the United States. That’s according to Nielsen, which released its monthly The Gauge report on TV watching habits in the United States for February on Tuesday. The report found that, despite TV viewing falling overall, February had one of the most active TV-watching days in history, and that streaming is inching closer to matching the viewership total of linear TV.
Key Details:
- Super Bowl LIX on Feb. 9 drove one of the most heavily-watched TV viewing days ever.
- Tubi accounted for 2% of all TV viewing in the month, in large part thanks to its Super Bowl simulcast.
- YouTube and Netflix continued to increase their viewership shares during the month as well.
Typically, seasonal trends cause time spent watching TV to fall between January and February, in large part because of the end of the college football postseason and the winding down of the NFL playoffs. That occurred once again this year, but that doesn’t mean February was a bad month for all sources of TV.
Linear TV had its day, to be sure. Feb. 9 saw American audiences stream 110 billion minutes of TV altogether; that was the second-largest total since Nielsen launched The Gauge in May 2021, trailing only Feb. 11, 2024. The common thread between both days is a Super Bowl broadcast; Super Bowl LIX on Fox and Tubi drew 127.7 million viewers between the two platforms.
Nevertheless, streaming had an outstanding month in February. It accounted for 43.5% of all TV watched, as compared to the 44.4% that cable and broadcast TV combined generated during the month. The 43.5% of total TV time claimed by streaming represents its largest historical share of TV watched in a given month. Tubi was able to grow its slice of the TV viewing pie to 2% total, in large part thanks to a simultaneous stream of the Super Bowl.
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YouTube increased its share of viewership during the month, accounting for 11.6% of all TV watched. Netflix also grew its share, accounting for 8.2% of all TV viewing time in the month. Netflix also laid claim to the most-watched streaming program of the month with “The Night Agent” Season 2 capturing 6 billion viewing minutes in February.
Streaming continues to gain viewership share, and it won’t be much longer before linear TV is relegated to second-screen status. The demise of linear television is continuing on a slow and steady trajectory, and its portion of total TV viewing will soon be overtaken by streaming.
Tubi
Tubi is a free video streaming service that includes on-demand access to 200,000+ movies and TV episodes - more than any other streaming service. Its ad breaks are shorter and less frequent than most free services. Fox executives have called their service “TV on steroids.”