The August 2024 edition of The Gauge from Nielsen, the audience measurement giant’s monthly snapshot of total broadcast, cable and streaming consumption that occurs through a television screen, shows that streaming is the undeniable content delivery medium among U.S. consumers.
However, in a month that saw the Olympic Games Paris 2024 across both NBC and Telemundo and numerous breaking news stories, broadcast TV’s total share of the viewing pie came in lower than that of cable television.
Television viewing in August was defined by the Summer Games. It had the most notable impact on broadcast viewership, Nielsen says, notching growth levels more typical for September with increases of 8% versus July and 11.7% year over year.
The broadcast category ultimately accounted for 22% of TV in August; when looking week-by-week, its share peaked during the first week of the interval with 24.3% of TV.
While that may be good for television in a month where summertime fare has traditionally translated to lower-than-average viewing percentages, the fact that cable TV — with years of cord-cutting stories smearing its continued importance to the industry — had a bigger percentage of consumption is perhaps a wake-up call to broadcasters.
And, while the Olympics gave NBC and Telemundo broadcast stations a boost, OTT delivery of coverage from Paris (and surfing from French Polynesia) boosted Peacock, the NBCUniversal-owned streaming service.
Peacock enjoyed a monthly viewership increase of 39% for the streaming service overall, and nearly double the amount of viewers aged 35-49. These factors, Nielsen says, helped lift Peacock from a 1.5% share of TV in July to a new platform-best 2.1% share in August. It also makes Peacock only the third streaming platform this year to record a 0.5 point share increase or more on a monthly basis, in addition to YouTube (February and July) and Netflix (June).
Across all of NBC’s Olympics telecasts that aired between July 29 and August 25, some 32 airings totaled more than 5 million viewers; 17 garnered more than 10 million viewers. Moreover, Olympics telecasts on NBC notched the top 19 broadcast telecasts of the month, with the prime-time presentation of the Women’s Gymnastics Team Final topping the charts with 17.9 million viewers.
From a total television usage perspective, August levels were even with July. However, a year-over-year comparison revealed a larger imbalance, as usage in August was up 3.5% versus August 2023. A notable year-over-year difference was also evident among broadcast program genres, with broadcast sports program viewership up 239% over August 2023, further illustrating the impact of the Games on the overall TV landscape.
THE DNC’s CABLE PUSH
So, why did Cable TV have such a good month?
Thank the Democratic Party and its 2024 National Convention in Chicago.
DNC coverage that aired for four nights across multiple networks including C-SPAN during the final week of the August interval led viewers to MSNBC, in particular.
There’s also the return of NCAA College Football, with ESPN’s coverage of the Florida State Seminoles versus the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets also of interest to those with a MVPD service.
In the end, cable viewing was down 2% from July. Still, it finished the month with 26.3% of TV — ahead of broadcast TV.
After several consecutive remarkable months, the streaming category had a softer month in August from a content perspective, Nielsen says.
No matter: it remained the clear winner overall with 41.0% of TV (down 1%, -0.4 pts.).
YouTube won the month among streaming services for the 19th consecutive interval, posting another category and platform best in August with 10.6% of TV. Compared with August 2023, YouTube has the largest year-over-year difference in share for any streaming platform and has added 1.5 points to its share of TV (9.1% to 10.6%). Meanwhile, the overall streaming category has gained 2.7 points YoY and is up 11% versus August 2023.
— With reporting by RBR+TVBR in New York
