Streaming viewership surpassed cable TV for the first time, says Nielsen

techcrunch.com:

Streaming viewership reached new highs last month, exceeding cable usage for the first time, according to Nielsen. The measurement firm today released its total TV and streaming report for July, stating that streaming represented a 34.8% share of total TV viewing in the U.S. — an increase of 22.6% compared to July 2021. Cable consumption was a little behind at 34.4%, an 8.9% drop from the year prior and a 2% decline compared to June.

Streaming had exceeded broadcast viewing before, and this continued to be the case, with broadcast down 3.7% on volume compared with June. Broadcast’s share of TV viewing was at 21.6% the report said.

The new milestone reinforces streaming as a top choice for TV viewers, mainly driven by original content that can’t be found on cable or broadcast television.

July also broke a record with the highest-volume streaming weeks, the data measurement firm noted. The average time spent streaming last month was 190.9 billion minutes per week. The week of Christmas in December 2021 was the last all-time high that Nielsen measured, with 183 billion minutes.

Note that Nielsen’s report only compares programming viewed on TVs and internet-connected TVs. It doesn’t measure streaming via mobile or desktop, which would likely make streaming’s market share even larger.

In fact, streaming on big screens (connected TVs, smart TVs, and gaming consoles) represented 77% of globally streamed minutes in Q1 2022, according to a report by streaming data analytics company Conviva.

Content – especially exclusive and unique content — is key to the success of streaming services. The boost in TV viewership was primarily driven by streaming releases across Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, and HBO Max.

Image