Television viewing levels soared during the first month of 2024, bolstered by “an abundance of high-volume streaming days, NFL playoffs, colder temperatures, and the long-awaited return of scripted broadcast programs.”
That’s the conclusion from the latest installment of “The Gauge” from Nielsen, which offers a total TV and streaming consumption portrait on a monthly basis.
But, does it present broadcast TV with a consumption problem?
Most notably, Nielsen says, January produced nine of the 10 highest daily streaming levels ever, with Saturday, January 13 marking the most-streamed day in history.
It’s thanks to Peacock‘s airing of the Miami Dolphins’ Wild Card game versus the Kansas City Chiefs, available on broadcast TV solely on KSHB-41 in Kansas City and on WTVJ-6 in Miami.
Yearly TV usage is typically at its peak in January, and this month, total viewing climbed 3.7% versus December. This monthly increase stands out, Nielsen notes, as viewing levels were 1.4% higher than in January 2023, which not only had a longer reporting period (5 weeks vs. 4 weeks), but also included the peak viewing week between Christmas and New Year’s, and was not in short supply of new programming.
Additionally, January 2024 included three of the top 10 days of TV usage since the inception of “The Gauge” in May 2021 (Jan. 1, 14 and 28), and marked the highest monthly TV usage total since January 2020 (excluding 2020 pandemic lockdown months).
However, broadcast lagged cable and streaming in January, even with live sporting events across the calendar. That’s a problem … right?
Not entirely. Broadcast viewing was up 7.1% in January, which bumped its share to 24.2% of total TV. Sports viewing had the greatest impact on the category, notching a 36% monthly viewing increase to account for 28% of all broadcast viewing. Broadcast drama viewing was up over 20% following some of the first new content releases of the season, led by new episodes across NBC’s Chicago franchise.
Cable viewing increased 2.7% over December, but fell to 27.9% of TV due to the larger increase of overall TV usage. ESPN’s broadcast of the College Football Playoff game between Michigan and Alabama led all cable programs this month, followed by six more NFL and college football games. News viewing was up 8% and topped all cable genres this month, led by the Iowa Town Hall on Fox News Channel (No. 8 cable program in January, excluding sports commentary).
Linear (live TV) streaming via MVPD (multichannel video programming distributors) and vMVPD (virtual multichannel video programming distributors) apps represented 6.2% of total television usage in January. Linear streaming is included in the appropriate broadcast or cable category, and is not included in the streaming category.
In a month of many high-impact days, streaming usage was up 4.1% over December to account for 36.0% of TV usage. Peacock led platforms from a growth perspective with a 29% monthly increase, pushing its share to a platform-best 1.6% of TV. YouTube notched its 12th consecutive month as having the largest share among streaming services, with 8.6% of TV usage.
From a content perspective, streaming original titles appeared to show signs of revival in January following a dominant year for acquired content in 2023: Netflix’s Fool Me Once was the first original to top the streaming charts since May 2023, totaling 6.5 billion viewing minutes across the month, and Reacher on Prime Video held the No. 4 spot with 4.3 billion minutes.
