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Thursday, March 16, 2023

Nielsen: Linear TV Viewing Continues To Fall


In February -- typically a slower-moving month for TV consumption -- total time watching TV for persons two years of age and up declined 5.1% compared to January, according to MediaPost citing Nielsen’s The Gauge measure.

Still, while other major categories fell, streaming platforms continued to pace upwards -- adding 1.5 percentage points from January to a leading 34.3% share of time spent viewing -- another record for the digital video format.

Tubi -- the free, ad-supported streamer -- was added to The Gauge as a separate streaming platform in the month, coming in with a 1% share. It tops competitor Pluto TV's 0.7%. Pluto TV was added to The Gauge in September 2022.

YouTube (not including YouTube TV) was at a 7.9% share -- the largest among all streaming platforms, according to The Gauge.

Broadcast dipped 9.2% from the previous month to a 23.8% share -- as a result of the NFL season ending in the previous month (except for the Super Bowl).

Cable TV viewing dropped 5.7% versus January, to a 30.2% share. Like broadcast, cable suffered due to lower sports viewing -- down 34% in February.




Year-over-year, compared to February 2022, broadcast viewing time was down 8%, while cable TV dropped 14.1%. Streaming was 20% higher compared to a 28.7% share in February 2022.




To more accurately reflect consumer viewing, beginning with the February 2023 period, The Gauge said the viewing that occurs through streaming apps via MVPD and vMVPD will no longer be credited to the streaming category, Nielsen notes.

“Removing MVPD/vMVPD [including YouTube TV, Hulu Live, DirecTV, Charter/Spectrum] viewing from streaming ensures that it is not counted twice, therefore providing a more accurate representation of what audiences are watching,” says Nielsen.

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