Not everybody loves sports. But nothing gets more people watching at the same time as sports does on any given Sunday. This is why Nielsen (NYSE: NLSN) announced that The Gauge, its monthly total TV and streaming snapshot, revealed that in October 2021 the broadcast share of consumer’s total TV increased 2% from September 2021 and now accounts for 28% of their total screen time.
The increase was primarily driven by strong ratings from a hard-charging NFL season and a compelling MLB World Series. Broadcast sports has enjoyed a 22% increase (compared to September 2021), and it shows no signs of fumbling. For the month of October, the top 10 most watched broadcast programs were all NFL games.
In terms of streaming, according to data from Nielsen’s Streaming Platform Ratings, the foundation of The Gauge’s streaming insights, streaming platforms also accounted for 28% of consumer’s total TV time.
Looking at the platforms themselves, Netflix gained ground, increasing 1 percentage point to command a 7% share of total TV time. The uptick was bolstered in part by high-profile content, such as Squid Game, You and Maid. The rest of the platform lineup, composed of YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu and Disney+, all remained steady in their share of consumer time.
Measuring and monitoring consumers streaming behavior in a comparable way and putting it in context with linear TV usage provides a critical perspective for the industry as content creators, media companies, streaming platforms, advertisers, industry groups, talent agencies and the talent themselves all seek clarity around the various video content that consumers engage with.
