July was the first month in which streaming has overtaken cable viewing, according to Nielsen’s monthly snapshot The Gauge, which reports streaming captured a record 34.8 percent share of total U.S. TV viewership, cable 34.4 percent and broadcast 21.6 percent. While streaming has exceeded broadcast’s viewing share before, this is the first time it also exceeded cable, said Nielsen Global Media’s Brian Fuhrer, SVP of product strategy and thought leadership. Audiences spent 23 percent more time streaming content than they did in July 2021, 9 percent less time watching cable and 10 percent less time watching broadcast television.

Nielsen points out that the shift is due in part to a dearth of sports and lack of first-run programming on cable and broadcast in July, so viewer patterns may shift again in the fall. “Total time spent watching TV in July closely resembled that of both June 2022 and July 2021, but despite these similarities, the change in the distribution of viewing formats on a year-over-year basis further demonstrates how viewing behaviors continue to shift,” Nielsen reports.

Among streaming platforms, Netflix, Amazon’s Prime Video, Disney’s Hulu and Google’s YouTube each captured record-high shares again in July after previously doing so in June, with Netflix drawing the largest share, at 8 percent, “boosted by the nearly 18 billion viewing minutes of ‘Stranger Things 4,’” Nielsen says, citing Hulu’s “Only Murders in the Building” and Netflix’s “The Sea Beast” among streaming’s most-watched shows.

“The increase in time spent streaming is a welcome sign for the many companies that have launched direct-to-consumer platforms in recent years and are vying to attract subscribers in a crowded market,” writes The Wall Street Journal, noting that many streamers “have spent heavily on content in an effort to draw in new customers, sacrificing profitability for growth.”

With children out of school during summer months, streaming may have gotten a boost from young viewers spending time on YouTube and other streaming platforms in July, WSJ conjectures. Variety points out that the Nielsen analytics “include only programming viewed on TVs and Internet-connected TVs — it doesn’t account for mobile or web streaming,” meaning that the overall streaming numbers are actually higher than Nielsen reports.

“A dearth of major sporting events in the summer months, which would otherwise draw some audiences to cable channels where games often appear” is a seasonal factor, although WSJ writes that “high-profile sporting events are increasingly making their way to streaming services such as Apple Inc.’s Apple TV+, Comcast Corp.’s Peacock, Paramount Global’s Paramount+ and Amazon’s Prime Video.”

Last month, Nielsen predicted streaming TV viewing would overtake cable before the year’s end.

Related:
Switched Off: Is the End of Non-Streaming TV on the Horizon?, The Guardian, 8/20/22
The Cord Has Been Cut. Streaming Is More Watched Than Cable, CNN, 8/19/22