The “most dominant performance by a single viewing category” isn’t a new Emmy award, but it may as well be an Olympic qualifying event, as the Olympic Games Paris 2024 attracted viewers from across the U.S.
Here’s the thing, though. It is streaming that made what Nielsen calls “TV history” for a second straight month. In July, it accounted for 41.4% of TV viewing.
Call it the “Peacock Effect,” or simply the continuation of a consumer shift away from linear television to digital platforms, but it cannot be denied: OTT, FAST and AVOD are terms that are here to stay, at least until the next technological leap some 25 years into the future.
The data, taken from the latest edition of Nielsen’s “The Gauge,” show that streaming levels were more than 5% higher in July compared to June, leading streaming to grow its share of TV by 1.1 points to surpass the previous record it set just last month.
The Summer Olympic Games in Paris undoubtedly had an impact on the results. Despite only three days of coverage included in the July Gauge report, the Games’ influence on viewing was clearly evident.
Total TV usage was up 2.3% in July compared to the previous month, and up 3.5% compared to July 2023. Broadcast viewing increased slightly this month to 20.3% of TV, but was up 5% compared to a year ago. The category also finished 0.3 points higher than July 2023 when it recorded its lowest share ever (20.0% of TV).
When TV usage is isolated by week, the start of Olympics coverage in the final week of July pushed the broadcast average up to over 22% of total TV. This is further emphasized by the fact that the Olympics accounted for the top five, and seven of the top 10, broadcast telecasts in the July report, with the largest audience averaging 19 million viewers on NBC on Sunday, July 28.
This shows that broadcast, combined with streaming, is a consumer and marketer combination that cannot be denied.
Peacock’s coverage of the Olympics vaulted the streamer to 1.5% of TV (+0.3 pt.) and its secon- best share of TV ever (behind 1.6% in Jan. 2024). Also boosted by viewing to Love Island USA, Peacock’s 33% monthly usage increase in July was the largest for any streaming platform in “The Gauge.” It was followed by two more streamers with double-digit monthly increases: Amazon Prime Video viewing was up 12% from June to notch 3.4% of TV (+0.3 pt.), its best since November 2023. The Roku Channel was up 10% and added 0.1 point to achieve a platform best 1.6% of TV.
“July is typically a peak month for streaming usage, and this year, each week of the July interval [July 1-July 28] led to the top four most streamed weeks ever reported by Nielsen,” the ratings measurement company said on Tuesday. July 2024 now holds four of the top 10 most streamed days on record, it adds.
YouTube became the first streaming platform ever to exceed 10%, accounting for 10.4% of TV usage (+0.5 pt.) in July. This comes after YouTube hit 9.9% of TV in June and secured the second-largest share of TV viewing among all media distributors.
House of the Dragon on Max topped streaming programs in July with 4.7 billion viewing minutes, also helping to drive an increase of over 4% for the streamer to retain its 1.4% share of TV. It was followed by Bluey on Disney+ with 4.3 billion viewing minutes in July. Disney+ usage was up 9.2% this month to finish with a platform best 2.1% of TV. Prime Video’s original series The Boys was third among streaming programs with 4.2 billion viewing minutes.
Cable viewing in July was even compared to June, but due to the larger increase of overall TV usage, the category lost half a share point and ended the month with 26.7% of TV.
