Media Stats: Total TV Usage Continues Downward Spiral, YouTube Remains Most Used Streaming Platform

Broadcast: As the temperatures seem to rise for the month of April, the opposite is happening for total TV usage dropping another 1.9%. Broadcast usage fell 2.7% in the month of April, losing 0.2 share points amounting to 23.1% of total TV usage. Broadcast sports amassed 17.1% to account for 9.6% of the category. Broadcast dramas, on the other hand, garnered a 2.1% viewing increase. Compared on a year-over-year basis, broadcast viewing is down 3.7% (1.6 share points).

Cable: For the second month in a row, the cable sector has escalated in numbers. An active news cycle may be to blame for the acquisition of 0.4 share points along with a 31.5% in TV usage according to Nielson Total Day | Person 2+ ratings. Cable news helped stabilize viewing; down 0.6% from March, accounting for 19% of cable usage in April. On a year-over-year basis, cable viewing is still down 12% (5.3 share points) – 0.6 points less than last month.

Streaming: Competition amongst streaming platforms are causing shifts in usage shares. With season finales and TBA’s there was 2.1% dip in streaming viewing numbers. Netflix viewing dropped 7%, adding on to the 0.4 share point loss along with Disney+ viewership, down 1.7% The newest free, ad-support platforms Tubi and Pluto continues to grow with Tubi attaining 6% and Pluto TV usage increasing by 3.9%. Overall, according to Nielson Total Day | Person 2+ data for April, streaming is still on the decline dropping 0.1% from March – a now 4.1% drop since January 2023.

YouTube, excluding YouTube TV, continues its streak as the most-used streaming platform. Usage for the platform increased 1.5% procuring 8.1% of TV usage. Netflix, still in second place, dropped to 6.9%, Hulu remaining at 3.3%, Amazon Prime Video, dropping 0.1% from March to 2.8%, Disney+ at a 1.8% standstill, additional platforms followed suit at 1.2% (HBOmax), 1.1% (Peacock), and 0.8% (Pluto); Tubi broke away with 1.1%.

Other: Content devices: Roku, Firestick, etc. fell 0.1% from March (11.6%) to 11.5% in April. Even so, the viewership increase contributed to an additional 0.1 share point. This increase means that the platforms are ever so close to reaching the 1% threshold to be recognized individually on the Nielson Total Day | Persons 2+ scale. Share of TV trended for the “other” category dropped from March 11.7% to 11.6%. Streaming trended chose a different path remaining at 6.8% since March.

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