Drama and sports bolster broadcast viewing in October, according to The Gauge – Nielsen

The combination of live sport and new fall television lineups was an enormous boon to broadcast television. According to The Gauge, SME’s total TV and streaming snapshot, broadcast gained 2 share points to represent 28% of total TV viewing in October. This is the second monthly increase in broadcast viewing, and October’s time was equal to that spent streaming. To gain share, cable and “other” each gave ground from a share perspective.

The rise in television viewership was due to two key genres: sports, up 22% since September and general drama. This was because viewers were attracted to new seasons of programming, which has now begun in full swing. In October, 35% of viewers watched broadcast programming together. 

While streaming’s total share of TV remained flat, The Gauge highlights two notable changes beneath the surface of the 28% share metric:

Total minutes viewed across Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ was down about 2.5% each; Hulu viewership was down 0.3%, while YouTube viewership increased 2.2%, amplified by the company’s linear offering.

The video features Brian Fuhrer from SME, who is SVP Product Strategy. He explains the fascinating backstory of The Gauge. Watch this space to learn if broadcast can maintain its momentum in the next month, or if streaming will attract new viewers. 

METHODOLOGY & FREQUENTLY ANSWERED QUESTIONS

Monthly macroanalyses of consumer access across major television platforms including Broadcast and Streaming as well as Cable, are provided by The Gauge. This chart includes information about the top streaming providers. It shows both the percentage of total TV use by each streaming distributor and by category.

The Gauge’s data are derived from two weighted panels. They then combine to make the graphic. 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 source and time period. The data, representing a 5 week month, includes a combination of Live+7 for weeks 1 – 4 in the data time period and Live+3 for week 5. Note: Live+7 also includes live TV viewing and viewing for up to seven consecutive days. 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, Video on Demand (VOD), streaming through a cable set-top box, Gaming and any other device (DVD playback), 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 will continue to work with Cable Set Top Boxes to credit streaming distributors.

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

Hulu Live viewing is included in Hulu, and Youtube viewing includes Youtube TV.

The encoded live TV (or encoded linear streaming) is available under both Broadcast and Cable (linear TV), as well as Streaming and any other streaming. 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. Distributors that combine linear TV content from the major networks into a single subscription package and make it accessible to all devices connected via broadband internet are called vMVPDs.

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