Nielsen’s The Gauge: Streaming Held One-Third of U.S. TV Usage in May

According to Nielsen’s May 2023 report of The Gauge, streaming accounted for 36.4 percent of time spent watching TV in the U.S. last month.

By comparison, 31.1 percent of TV viewing was spent watching cable content and 22.8 percent with broadcast content.

In line with trends that are typical for this time of year, total TV usage in the U.S. declined for the fourth consecutive month in May, falling 4.4 percent from April. Comparatively, time spent watching TV declined 2.7 percent over the same period in 2022.

Time spent streaming (via a television) increased 2.5 percent in May versus April, and streaming’s share of TV usage jumped from 34 percent to 36.4 percent. The report cites that while a technical enhancement—The Gauge now counting content streamed via a cable set-top box as a “streaming original” credited to the appropriate streaming service, and by extension, the overall streaming category (deducted from “other”)—was a factor in the monthly uptick, approximately half of the increase was a reflection of viewing behavior alone.

Representing 1.1 percent of TV usage in May, the Roku Channel is the latest streaming service, and third free ad-supported television (FAST) service, to obtain stand-alone coverage in The Gauge. Combined, the three FAST services that are independently reported in The Gauge (Pluto TV, Tubi TV, Roku Channel) are each comparable in usage to Peacock and Max, and in aggregate, accounted for 3.3 percent of TV time this month.

Netflix posted usage gains of 9.2 percent (up 1 share point) and Prime Video 5.1 percent (up 0.3 share points). Roughly half of Netflix’s increase was due to the above-mentioned technical enhancement, coupled with the fact that the top three streaming titles this month were Netflix originals: Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story (5.4 billion viewing minutes), A Man Called Otto (3.1 billion) and The Mother (3 billion). Prime Video benefited from the strength of its original series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Citadel, which combined for 2.7 billion viewing minutes.

YouTube maintained its position as the top streaming platform for the fourth consecutive month, gaining 0.4 share points in May (0.9 percent usage increase) to account for 8.5 percent of TV.

Broadcast and cable viewing fell 5.5 percent and 5.4 percent, respectively, in May versus April, and each surrendered 0.3 share points. Broadcast sports viewing was down 25 percent in May compared with April, and the genre represented 7.9 percent of broadcast’s 22.8 percent share. By contrast, cable sports viewership rose 12 percent in May, driven by coverage of the NBA Finals on ESPN and TNT.

On a year-over-year basis, broadcast viewing was down 5.6 percent (1.7 share points), and cable viewing was down 13.7 percent (5.4 share points).