It’s a monthly video content consumption snapshot that’s come under fire from some in TV industry circles for its skewed view of how Americans tune in to their favorite shows or live programming. And, the May 2026 edition of “The Gauge” report from Nielsen is likely to continue that dialogue, given the portrait it presents to over-the-air TV companies that rely on its data for its fragile core advertising sales needs.
Once again, The Gauge titled toward streaming, which “appeared to begin its summer ascent” in May as audiences’ time spent streaming increased by one percentage point to 48.6% of total TV watch-time.
The latest reports of The Gauge and Media Distributor Gauge also show that overall TV usage exhibited “a notably smaller monthly decrease” compared to previous April-to-May transitions; it declined 1% this interval versus 2%-4% in prior years, Nielsen shared.
Still, Broadcast’s total TV watch-time in May came in lower than that of Cable — perhaps due to live sports coverage on MVPD-distributed channels and not so much on over-the-air channels.
As shown above, Cable comprised 20.4% of total TV watch time in May 2026. For Broadcast, it was 19.2%.
“Broadcast and cable viewing exhibited typical April-to-May declines,” Nielsen said. “While broadcast sports viewership rebounded slightly (+3%), broadcast dramas (-13%) and sitcoms (-10%) were impacted by the conclusion of the broadcast season in the final weeks of the month. On the cable side, despite the NBA Playoffs steadying the sports genre, it could not compensate for the 16% drop in cable news viewership.”
Within Streaming, YouTube — yes, the platform where user-generated content intersects with professionally produced offerings — recorded a platform-best 13.8% of TV watch-time in May. This helped YouTube maintain the largest share of television among all distributors for a third consecutive month. The streamer also captured the largest monthly share gain across both streaming platforms and media companies in May, rising by 0.4 points.
Prime Video saw a 4% increase and captured its best share of TV to date with 4.5% of television usage (+0.3 pts.). Viewing from audiences aged 18-24 year-old audiences was up 18% on the platform as well.
According to Nielsen, the bulk of Prime Video’s success this month was primarily driven by the final episodes of its original series “The Boys,” and its coverage of 20 live sports events, including 12 NBA Playoff games, six WNBA games and two NASCAR Cup Series races. The sports events drove 7.5 billion viewing minutes combined on the platform, Nielsen said.
Among media distributors, Disney maintained the second largest share of TV in May with 10.0% of total watch-time. ESPN was up 16% and owned the top six cable telecasts in May, driven by its coverage of the NBA Playoffs.
