The return of football greatly benefited broadcast, which was the only viewing segment to record month-to-month gains, according to Nielsen’s monthly gauge report for September.
The report, which examines the monthly total viewing consumption through television screens by media distributors across broadcast, cable, and streaming, shows that the linear segment increased by +3.2% compared to the previous month, standing at 22.3%.
The NFL and college football were the primary reasons for the increased number of eyeballs, with sports viewership representing 33% of broadcast’s overall total for the month, compared to 11% in August.
Nielsen reports that 15 NFL telecasts in September across CBS, Fox, and NBC performed better than the previous month’s most-watched telecast, with this month’s biggest audience more than doubling it.
According to Nielsen’s Media Distributor Gauge, streaming remained the preferred TV viewing format, accounting for 45.2% of usage in September. It dropped by -1.2% from August, impacted by its lack of live sports offerings.
The combined linear segment of broadcast and cable had a share of 44.6%, representing a +3% increase from its August performance. Both the broadcast and cable segments had an equal distribution, with each accounting for 22.3% of the viewership in September.
Broadcast saw its largest monthly increase in the history of Nielsen’s Gauge report, recording a 20% uptick in time spent watching broadcast programming.
Meanwhile, cable performance was slightly off from August’s numbers, as it saw a decrease of -0.2% to 22.3% despite the presence of live NFL games. The top five cable telecasts during the recorded month included four Monday Night Football games on ESPN and the first international NFL game of the season on NFL Network.
However, cable news consumption led the way with a +9% increase, representing over a quarter of the category’s September viewing total.
Meanwhile, the Other category experienced the steepest decline of the month, falling by -1.8% to stand at 10.2% for the recorded month.
Streaming stats
A closer look at the streaming category for September reveals that YouTube remained in first place among streaming services, with 12.6% of all viewing. Compared to its August performance, which stood at 13.1%, YouTube’s showing decreased by -0.5%.
Netflix was in second place with 8.3% of all total streaming consumption. This represented a -0.4% decrease compared to its performance the previous month.
The Disney group of streaming channels, comprising Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu SVOD, followed with 4.5%, down -0.1% from August. Next was Amazon’s Prime Video, which remained steady at 3.9%.
The Roku Channel finished September flat at 2.8%, while Tubi saw a -0.1% dip, standing at 2.1% of all streaming consumption. They were followed by the consortium of Paramount+ and PlutoTV, comprising Paramount Global’s streaming platforms, which also remained flat at 2% for September.