Nielsen continues to refine its measurement of streaming in particular for vMVPDs and MVPDs, which has the effect of impacting the weight of the streaming audience.
Broadcast and cable lost ground in February due to less intense programming than in January, particularly due to the end of the NFL season. Nielsen explains that TV and cable usage fell 9.2% and 5.7%, respectively. Over-the-air sports viewership fell 64.7%, with only the Super Bowl at the end of the NFL playoffs in January. Moreover, the 3.6% increase in viewing to drama series and 6.8% in viewing to sitcoms were not enough to compensate for the loss. The 2.4% increase in viewership for cable news (State of the Union Address) was not enough to offset the 34.6% drop in viewership for sports, resulting in a 5.7% drop in total cable viewership.
On the streamer side, there is always news, both due to the release of new seasons, but also due to the addition of cinema films that enjoy a short timeline in the United States. For these reasons, Nielsen confirms that streaming platforms remained the preferred destination for viewers, but overall viewing to streaming content was down 0.9% from January, the smallest drop of any category. Despite the decline in total streaming viewership, the category gained 1.5 points of share to account for 34.3% of TV usage.
Nielsen is also following the evolution of free streaming services (AVOD and FAST) very closely: Tubi TV (Fox Corp) has become the latest service to achieve a 1% share of TV usage, joining Pluto TV in as a second free and ad-supported platform. Regarding the programs, Nielsen highlights the performances for the month of February 2023:
• “New Amsterdam” was the most watched program in streaming, with 4.6 billion minutes of viewing on Netflix and Peacock.
• “The Last of Us” was the second most-watched program, with 4.4 billion minutes watched on HBO Max.
• Views on YouTube (main) increased by 2.5%.
• The arrival of a new season of “You” on Netflix generated 4.2 billion minutes of viewing, but the overall use of the platform fell by 6.7%.
