Audiences’ share of time streaming hits new high in March – Nielsen

The streaming industry reached a milestone in March when viewers spent 30% of their television time on over-the-top content. Over February streaming gained a complete share point. This was due to streaming services benefiting from the removal of the Olympics’ final game and professional football, which helped boost fall and winter TV viewing across all broadcast networks.

Despite a slight 0.7% decrease in total streaming, viewing share across all of the streaming providers captured in The Gauge was either flat or gained slightly in March, with the “other streaming” category grabbing an additional 0.3% share as new services steadily gain traction in an ever-expanding field (“other streaming” includes any high-bandwidth video streaming on TV that is not individually broken out) .

While streaming usage fell slightly, it was still lower than total TV usage. This trend is in line with historic norms and consumers are beginning to adjust for warmer weather. Even though total usage fell, more viewers watched TV with cable. The ongoing conflict in Ukraine drove an increase of 1.6 shares points for a small increase in total volumes. 

Broadcast programming has lost more viewers than the full share, while sports viewing fell 53% month-over-month. NASCAR and the NCAA basketball tournaments helped satiate some viewers, but not enough to account for the draw of the Olympics and the Super Bowl, causing the “sports event programming” share of viewing to fall from almost 25% to 12% in March. The upside of broadcast was dramas, which accounted for one third of all total viewing.

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The video gives you a glimpse into the workings of The Gauge by Brian Fuhrer.

METHODOLOGY & FREQUENTLY ABUSED QUESTIONS

The Gauge is a monthly analysis of consumers’ access to content on key TV delivery channels, such as Broadcast, Streaming and Cable. The chart also shows the breakdown of major streaming distributors. It shows both the percentage of total television use by each streaming distributor and by category.

The Gauge data is created from two separate weighted panels. SME’s streaming data is derived from a subset of Streaming Meter-enabled TV households within the National TV panel. The linear TV sources (Broadcast and Cable), as well as total usage are based on viewing from SME’s overall TV panel.

The data are based upon a particular viewing period. The data, representing a 5 week month, includes a combination of Live+7 for weeks 1 – 4 in the data time period. Notice: Live+7 covers live viewing of television and watching up to seven days after. You can view up to 3 days after the broadcast, and live +3 is television viewing.

Within The Gauge, “Other” includes all other TV. All other TV, including unmeasured source tuning, streaming via a cable set-top box, gaming and any other device (DVD player) are included in this category. Because streaming via cable set top boxes does not credit respective streaming distributors, these are included in the “Other” category. SME is continuing to credit individual cable set top box streaming distributors as part of our Streaming Meter technology.

Streaming platforms listed as “Other Streaming” includes any high-bandwidth video streaming on television that is not individually broken out.

Hulu Live is available for viewing, as well as Youtube TV viewing.

The encoded live TV (or encoded linear streaming) is available under both Broadcast and Cable groups. Hulu, Youtube TV and other streaming MVPD/vMVPD apps are all included in the Broadcast and Cable groups (linear TV), as well as under Streaming. MVPD is multichannel video programming distributer. This service provides several television channels. vMVPDs distribute linear content (TV), licensed from multiple programming networks. The content is packaged in a subscription-based format that can be accessed on any device with broadband access.

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