Nielsen has released its final ‘The Gauge’ report of 2024, mapping out TV viewing time for the US in November (data for December won’t arrive until the new year). The release provides a neat overview of the ways in which US TV viewing has changed over the past year – and the ways in which it hasn’t.
The Gauge lays out the proportion of time US audiences spend watching broadcast TV, cable TV, and streaming, as well as other uses (all bundled into one category). Since launching, the report has charted the continued rise of streaming, as its share of TV viewing time has eaten away at broadcast and cable.
This growth has continued throughout 2024. In November last year, streaming accounted for 36.1 percent of total viewing, rising to 41.6 percent last month – an all time high. But this rise isn’t necessarily as significant as it might at first appear.
Looking at monthly figures, streaming’s share of TV time has fluctuated over the past two years. Last November’s figure was actually a relative lull – streaming’s share had previously hit 38.7 percent in July that same year. So while it’s true that streaming gained 5.5 percentage points in the past 12 months, you could also say it’s grown 2.9 percentage points in the past 16 months – somewhat less impressive growth.
The trend is still one of general growth. But amid continued talk of massive shifts in viewing figures, it’s important to note that in the US at least, the growth of streaming’s share of viewing (at least on TV sets) is much more muted than it once was.
Streaming wars gone cold
The Gauge also looks at the share of TV viewing time picked up by individual streaming services, and here it’s a similar story. While some have found growth, no individual services have made particularly notable gains against their competitors over the past year. For all the continued talk of streaming wars, most services have settled into their position in the pecking order.
This time last year, YouTube was already the streaming service with the highest viewing time on TV, and it has found the highest growth over the past 12 months. Its share has grown from 9.0 percent to 10.8 percent last month.
Netflix has also eeked out growth from 7.4 percent last November to 7.7 percent last month – though it’s worth noting that this is down from a high of 8.4 percent in June and July.
Elsewhere, several major services find themselves in the same position as they were a year ago. Hulu’s share is exactly the same, at 2.7 percent. So is Disney+’s, at 1.9 percent. Peacock has gained 0.2 percentage points, Pluto TV has gained 0.1 percentage points, and Max has lost 0.1 percentage points.
There has been notable growth among some of the smaller services. VideoWeek reported earlier this year on how ad-supported services The Roku Channel and Tubi were both catching up with the major SVOD players. Tubi’s growth has since stalled while Roku’s has continued. But year-on-year they’ve both maintained significant gains – The Roku Channel held 1.9 percent of viewing in November, up from 1.1 percent a year ago, while Tubi hit 1.8 percent, up from 1.3 percent last year.
Interestingly, there’s also been significant growth in the ‘other streaming’ category, representing all streaming viewing not attributed to the major services which are individually measured by Nielsen. These ‘other’ services picked up 5.1 percent of TV viewing in November 2023, which rose to 6.3 percent last month. While this is obviously split among a large number of small services, it’s still significant that these niche offerings as a whole are growing their share of TV viewing.
