NEW YORK—Broadcast gained audience share in September for the second month in a row, boosted by an explosive month of viewership in the sports genre, according to Nielsen's September 2023 report of The Gauge, the media measurement company's monthly snapshot of total broadcast, cable and streaming consumption that occurs via television.
In September, broadcast viewing volume was up by nearly 13% overall, and by more than 30% in both the 18-49 and 25-54 demographics. This sizable increase in the amount of viewing led to an increase of 2.5 audience share points, which allowed broadcast to finish at 23.0% of total TV usage.
More specifically, the broadcast sports genre experienced massive growth (+360%) amid the start of NFL and college football seasons. By comparison, the sports genre saw a 222% increase in viewership over the same period in 2022.
Cable also felt a positive impact from sports viewership, exhibiting a 25.5% increase in the sports genre in September. ESPN carried the top 11 cable telecasts this month—10 of the 11 were football-related, and the U.S. Open took ninth place. Overall, cable viewing in September fell slightly (-1.1%) from August, and the category lost 0.4 share points to represent 29.8% of TV usage.
Streaming viewership declined for the second consecutive month (-1.7%), and the category lost more than half a share point to represent 37.5% of total TV usage in September, Nielsen reported.
There were a few bright spots for the category, however, including Amazon Prime Video, which saw the largest increase in viewership among streaming platforms (+7.5%) driven by the two NFL Thursday Night Football broadcasts, as well as the second season of The Wheel of Time. This month's TNF broadcast dates also represented Prime Video's highest viewing days in September, and the streamer reached a personal best 3.6% share of television.
In addition to Prime Video, Tubi and The Roku Channel were the only other streaming platforms to exhibit growth in viewership vs. August (up 4.3% and 1.4%, respectively). Their audience share, however, remained the same.
Despite hosting September's top three streaming titles, which accounted for a combined 18 billion viewing minutes (Suits, shared with Peacock, Virgin River and One Piece), Netflix viewership declined around 5% and it lost 0.4 share points.
Paramount+ and Peacock also declined in the 5% range, while Disney+ usage was much flatter by comparison (-1.6%), due in part to the 11.3 billion viewing minutes accumulated by Bluey, Ahsoka, Elemental and The Little Mermaid (2023).
Linear (live TV) streaming via MVPD (multichannel video programming distributors) and vMVPD (virtual multichannel video programming distributors) apps represented 5.7% of total television usage in September, the highest total to date this year. Linear streaming is included in the appropriate broadcast or cable category, and is not included in the streaming category.
