NEW YORK—Broadcast viewing continued to grow in October, thanks to gains in both sports and drama programming, according to “The Gauge,” the monthly viewership report from Nielsen.
The broadcast category grew by 7% last month, adding 1.4 share points to finish at 24% of total time spent watching television—its largest monthly share of TV since January. October marked broadcast’s third consecutive month of growth, with the category adding 3.7 share points over that span.
October gains in broadcast viewership were driven by a 29% increase for drama programs and a 10% bump in sports viewership, Nielsen reported.
NFL games once again dominated, notching the 16 most-watched shows on broadcast. Fox’s Week 7 Kansas City Chiefs-San Francisco 49ers game on Oct. 20 drew October’s largest audience with 27 million viewers. Outside of football, Game 1 of the World Series on Fox Oct. 25 notched 15.2 million viewers and was No. 17 on the list of top telecasts.
Cable viewing accounted for 26.3% of total TV usage in October (up 0.2 pt.), and the category saw growth in its viewing share for the first time since April. Cable viewership was lifted by a 5% gain in news viewing, led by the Oct. 1 vice presidential debate and monthlong coverage leading up to Election Day, as well as a 52% boost in sports viewing driven by NFL “Monday Night Football,” college football and MLB postseason games.
Sports and news programs were also at the top of the most-watched cable telecasts list in October, with ESPN’s Chiefs-New Orleans Saints “Monday Night Football” game on Oct. 7 taking the top slot with 14 million viewers, followed by Fox News Channel’s vice presidential debate coverage, which drew 7.9 million viewers. Year-over-year, cable news was up 17% compared to October 2023 while cable sports was up 14%.
Streaming viewership in October was fairly flat compared to last month, with eight of the 11 reported streaming services within 0.1 share point or less of their September totals. The category accounted for 40.5% of total time spent watching TV (down 0.5 share points).
Among the streamers with larger monthly differentials, The Roku Channel was up 12% and added 0.2 share points to finish the month at 1.8% of television, a high point for the FAST service.
Netflix was down 4% with 7.5% of TV (down 0.4 share points), but still managed to own the top five streaming originals this month, led by “Love Is Blind,” which was also the top streaming title in October, with 4.4 billion viewing minutes.
The measurement month of October ran for four weeks from Sept. 30 through Oct. 27. Nielsen measurement weeks run Monday through Sunday.
