NEW YORK—After dipping to record lows in August, traditional TV viewership gained ground in August, as broadcast and cable each bounced back to combine for 50.6% of total TV usage, according to Nielsen's August 2023 report of The Gauge.
Meanwhile streaming fell to 38.3% of total TV usage, but remained the largest share of television for the month. Since the August 2022 report of The Gauge, streaming has gained 7.0 share points, growing from 31.3% to 38.3% of total TV usage.
In July, Nielsen’s The Gauge reported that U.S. broadcast and cable TV fell below 50% of total TV viewing for the first time since the company began tracking streaming services in the fall of 2020.
Broadcast viewership in August increased 1.6% compared with July, and its share of total usage was up 0.4 points to 20.4% of TV viewing. This is the first gain recorded in the broadcast category since January 2023, the researchers said.
Broadcast benefited from increased viewing in the "participation variety" (e.g., "America's Got Talent" on NBC) and "general variety" (e.g., "Big Brother" on CBS) genres, but drama and news were the most-watched broadcast genres in August, accounting for 16.9% and 24.8% of the category, respectively.
Cable recorded the largest monthly increase across all categories in The Gauge in August. Cable viewing was up 1.7% compared with July, and the category gained more than half a share point (+0.6 pts.), the researchers said.
Increased cable usage was driven by a 21.6% lift in cable sports viewing, primarily due to NFL preseason events, as well as an 18% lift in cable news viewing, primarily due to the first presidential debate. About 85% of the overall increase in cable viewing was driven by viewers aged 65 and older, Nielsen reported.
On a year-over-year basis, broadcast viewing in August was down 5.5% (-1.7 share points of total TV usage), and cable viewing was down 10.6% (-4.3 share points).
Streaming, which disproportionately felt the back-to-school impact, fell 1.6% in August vs. July, and the category lost almost half a share point to finish at 38.3% of total TV usage. Approximately 80% of this decline involves viewers aged 2-17. This drop also took back the bump in viewing share that this group provided at the beginning of the summer, Nielsen reported.
Peacock recorded the largest increase among streamers in August, with usage rising 8.3% as a result of events like WWE SummerSlam, shared coverage of the NFL Hall of Fame Game, and the success of The Super Mario Brothers Movie. Riding on the continued strength of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds", and its new original series "Special Ops: Lioness", Paramount+ was up 4.2% vs. July to finish at 1.1% of total TV usage (a high watermark for the platform).
"Suits", which streams on both Netflix and Peacock, remained the top streaming title in August with 11.7 billion minutes viewed, followed by the Netflix original series "The Lincoln Lawyer" at 4.5 billion minutes. Despite the drop in streaming usage among viewers under 18, Disney+ had the third- and fourth-most-watched streaming titles in August with Bluey at 4.2 billion minutes and "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" at 3.2 billion minutes.
