According to Nielsen’s monthly total TV and streaming snapshot, The Gauge, streaming continued to break records in June.
Summertime TV viewing is typically lower, yet overall TV usage grew from May 2022 by +1.9%. This was helped by an increase in streaming of +7.7%, which increased streaming’s audience share by +1.8 points to a record high of 33.7%, the most significant TV consumption tracked by The Gauge since its debut in May 2021.
Four streaming services, Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+ and YouTube, experienced record-high viewing shares in June due to this significant growth in streaming. Viewers spent +16.2% more time watching Netflix than last month, now accounting for 7.7% of all TV viewing. In addition, Disney+ reported a +14.7% month-to-month increase, Prime Video saw a +11.1% month-to-month increase and YouTube saw a +5.2% month-to-month increase.
The official end of the TV season and a dearth of fresh content contributed to a -6.7% drop in viewing across broadcast. Drama viewing suffered the most after the conclusion of the regular TV season, declining -31% in June. However, sports were a bright light for broadcast, as the NHL and NBA finals in June contributed to a +43.8% increase in viewing.
Sports was also a factor in cable viewing, but for the opposite reason. With the NBA playoffs concluding on cable in May, sports viewing on cable fell -42.1%—too large a drop to be offset by the feature film category, which is always a notable contributor for cable. Viewing of feature films increased by +15.8% percent from May to June, accounting for 13.7% of all cable viewing minutes. Cable viewing minutes decreased -11.9% year-over-year.
