Pac-12 football (Shutterstock image)
Nielsen: Live Sports Boosts September Broadcast, Pay-TV at Streaming Expense
October 17, 2023
The return of college football and the NFL helped revive broadcast and pay-TV in September, while undermining household TV streaming for the second consecutive month, according to new data from Nielsen.
Broadcast viewership increased for the second consecutive month, with viewing volume up by nearly 13% overall, and by more than 30% in both the 18-49 and 25-54 demographics. This sizable increase in volume led to an additional 2.5 share points for the category, to finish at 23% of total TV usage. The broadcast sports genre experienced massive growth (+360%) amid the start of NFL and college football seasons. By comparison, the sports genre saw a 222% increase in viewership over the same period in 2022.
Cable TV also felt a positive impact from sports viewership, exhibiting a 25.5% increase in the sports genre in September. ESPN carried the top 11 cable telecasts this month — 10 of the 11 were football-related, and the U.S. Open tennis tournament took ninth place. Overall, cable viewing in September fell slightly (-1.1%) from August, and the category lost 0.4 share points to represent 29.8% of TV usage.
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Streaming viewership declined (-1.7%), and the category lost more than half a share point to represent 37.5% of total TV usage in September. There were a few bright spots, however, including Prime Video, which saw the largest increase in viewership among streaming platforms (+7.5%) as a result of its exclusive rights to NFL “Thursday Night Football,” as well as the second season of “The Wheel of Time.” This month’s Thursday Night Football broadcast dates represented Prime Video’s highest viewing days in September, and the streamer reached a personal best 3.6% share of television.
In addition to Prime Video, Tubi and The Roku Channel were the other streaming platforms to exhibit growth in viewership vs. August (up 4.3% and 1.4%, respectively), but shares for each remained the same. Despite hosting September’s top three streaming titles, which accounted for a combined 18 billion viewing minutes (“Suits,” shared with Peacock, “Virgin River” and “One Piece”), Netflix viewership declined around 5%, losing 0.4 share points. Paramount+ and Peacock also declined in the 5% range, while Disney+ usage was much flatter by comparison (-1.6%), due in part to the 11.3 billion viewing minutes accumulated by “Bluey,” “Ahsoka,” Elemental and The Little Mermaid (2023).
Linear (live TV) streaming via MVPD (multichannel video programming distributors) and online pay-TV apps, including Sling TV, YouTube TV, Fubo, and Hulu + Live TV, represented 5.7% of total television usage in September, the highest total to date this year. Linear streaming is included in the appropriate broadcast or cable category, and is not included in the streaming category.