Broadcast viewing grew 2.1% in January, propelled by a 55% hike in sports viewing and an almost 30% uptick in drama viewing, according to Nielsen’s latest monthly snapshot.
With the National Football League in playoff mode, broadcast’s share of viewing increased to 24.9% from 24.7% in December. But compared to a year ago, broadcast viewing was down 6%.
Viewing of streaming content rose 1.2% from December, leaving its share unchanged at 38.1%. Compared to a year ago, time spent with streaming content was up 31%.
YouTube was again the top streaming service with an 8.6% share, down from 8.7% in December, followed by Netflix with a 7.5% share, unchanged.
Hulu had a 3.5% share, up from 3.4%; Amazon Prime Video had a 2.9% share, up from 2.7%. Disney Plus’s share was 1.7% down from 1.9% and HBO Max had a 1.3% share slightly lower than its 1.4% in December. Peacock was steady at 1%, as was Pluto TV at 0.8%.
NIelsen said Prime Video got a boost from its Jack Ryan series and its original movie Shotgun Wedding.
Broadcast and cable content viewed through multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) or virtual MVPD streaming apps is also credited in the broadcast and cable categories.
Cable viewing was down 0.3%, and its share dipped to 30.4% from 30.9% in December.
Cable sports viewing jumped 22% in January. Viewing of feature films on cable fell 19% after showing growth in November and December. Cable news viewing dipped 4%, but it remains the most-watched cable genre. On a year-over-year basis, time spent watching cable content declined 14.6%.
Broadcast and cable content viewing on MVPD and vMVPD streaming apps represented 5.3% of total television usage and 13.9% of streaming usage in January. YouTube TV accounted for 14.9% of YouTube viewing (1.3 share points), and Hulu Live made up 9.1% of Hulu viewing (0.3 share points).
