Nielsen’s The Gauge: Streaming Sets New Record for U.S. TV Consumption

For a second consecutive month, streaming made TV history again in the U.S. in July as it notched the most dominant performance by a single viewing category ever in Nielsen’s The Gauge.

Streaming levels were over 5 percent higher in July compared to June, leading streaming to grow its share of TV by more than a point (up 1.1 points) and break the previous record it set just last month.

Though there were only three days of coverage for the Summer Olympics in Paris in July, the impact was still evident. Total TV usage was up 2.3 percent in July compared to the previous month and up 3.5 percent compared to a year ago. Broadcast viewing increased slightly this month to 20.3 percent of TV but was up 5 percent compared to July 2023. The category also finished 0.3 points higher than July 2023, when it recorded its lowest share ever (20 percent 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 percent of total TV.

Peacock’s coverage of the Olympics put the streamer at 1.5 percent of TV (up 0.3 points) and its second-best share of TV ever (behind 1.6 percent in January 2024). Peacock’s 33 percent monthly usage increase in July, also boosted by viewing to Love Island USA, was the largest for any streaming platform in The Gauge.

Amazon Prime Video viewing was up 12 percent from June to reach 3.4 percent of TV (up 0.3 points), its best since November 2023. The Roku Channel was up 10 percent and added 0.1 points to achieve a platform-best of 1.6 percent of TV.

YouTube became the first streaming platform ever to exceed 10 percent of total TV usage in July. The streamer was up 7 percent versus last month, accounting for 10.4 percent of TV usage (a gain of 0.5 points). This comes after YouTube hit 9.9 percent of TV in June and secured the second-largest share of TV viewing among all media distributors.

Max, boosted by House of the Dragon (4.7 billion viewing minutes), saw an increase of over 4 percent for the streamer to retain its 1.4 percent share of TV.

Disney+ usage was up 9.2 percent to finish with a platform-best 2.1 percent of TV. Bluey on Disney+ saw 4.3 billion viewing minutes.

Prime Video’s original series The Boys was third among streaming programs with 4.2 billion viewing minutes.

Cable viewing in July was flat compared to June, but due to the larger increase in overall TV usage, the category lost half a share point and ended the month with 26.7 percent of TV. Cable news viewing saw a significant increase in July, driven by the Republican National Convention and coverage of the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump. The news genre was up 23 percent compared to the prior month and up 52 percent compared to the prior year.