In July, streaming accounted for 41.4 percent of total TV viewing time in the US, according to Nielsen’s latest ‘The Gauge’ report, which maps out how American audiences consume content via TV sets. While streaming isn’t growing at the rate it once was – streaming actually fell as a percentage of total TV time after hitting a high of 38.7 percent last July, and only hit that figure again back in May – it’s still steadily gaining ground over broadcast and cable.
This growth, however, isn’t being equally shared amongst US streaming services. Nielsen’s data shows the percentage of TV viewing time attributed to individual CTV offerings, and while many are still growing, some are gaining share much faster than others. Interestingly, Nielsen’s data shows that so far in 2024, it’s been the ad-supported services which have gained the most ground.
Growth at both ends of the spectrum
The Nielsen data doesn’t show whether any individual streaming service has grown or fallen in terms of viewing hours or audience size. It shows the percentage of total TV viewing allocated to each individual service, meaning it’s possible that a CTV platform could grow total viewing month-on-month, but lose share in Nielsen’s dataset if its competitors grew at a faster rate.
But by comparing how much TV time each service is eating up, the numbers give good insight into who is gaining and losing ground in the battle for audiences’ attention. Comparing July’s data with the last dataset for 2023, we see some interesting trends.
The most obvious is the continued growth of YouTube, an increasingly dominant force in the CTV landscape. Back in December, it was already the largest streaming service in terms of viewing time according to Nielsen, accounting for 8.5 percent of total TV viewing. Since then, it’s seen the most growth of any CTV service too, reaching 10.4 percent of TV viewing in July – growth of 1.9 percentage points.
Netflix the second largest streaming service based on TV viewing time, has also increased its share. Netflix accounted for 7.7 percent of TV time in the US in December, and 8.4 percent in July – growth of 0.7 percentage points. This is significantly higher growth than major competitors – Amazon and Hulu’s share grew by just 0.1 percentage points during this time, while Disney+, Max, and Peacock grew by 0.2 percentage points.
However it’s not simply a case of the rich getting richer. Tubi and The Roku Channel have also seen strong growth in 2024 according to Nielsen. The Roku Channel ended 2023 with one percent of total TV viewing time in the US, which had grown to 1.6 percent in July. Tubi meanwhile grew from 1.4 percent to 2.1 percent over the same period – matching Netflix’s growth.
The impressive growth of these two streaming services looks validating for their completely free, ad-supported models (at least in terms of building audiences). The Roku Channel’s current share of TV viewing time (1.6 percent) means it now sits ahead of Paramount+ (1.1 percent), Peacock (1.5 percent), and Max (1.4 percent). Meanwhile Tubi now matches Disney+, each with 2.1 percent of TV viewing time.
Significantly, they’re also both growing faster than their SVOD and hybrid-model competitors. Tubi and The Roku Channel don’t have the same amount of big budget content as their competitors (which, as VideoWeek reported yesterday, is no guarantee of success). But price and ease of access are major factors for attracting audiences too. YouTube’s climbed to the top of the CTV pile in America thanks in part to its free, ad-supported model, and that same model is helping Tubi and The Roku Channel steal ground on their rivals too.
