Wednesday, April 19, 2023

March Madness Fuels Cable Rebound In March


Although cable TV viewership in March was the only TV category to show gains versus the previous month, it was still down 14% in viewing versus a year ago -- losing nearly 1.6 share percentage points, according to Nielsen’s The Gauge measure.

MediaPost reports Cable's rise was largely attributable to the March Madness event -- the NCAA men’s college basketball tournament on TNT, TBS and truTV.

Overall, cable had a 31.1% share for the month in total day TV usage of persons two years and older, compared to 32.7% a year ago.

Streaming platforms remained the leaders by the Gauge measure with a 34.1% share -- up over 30% versus March 2022.

Streaming dipped slightly from the month before -- February 2023 -- when its share was at 34.3%.

While the major streamers were mostly flat -- including YouTube, 7.8% (vs. 7.9% in February); Netflix, 7.3% (the same as the previous month), Disney+, 1.8% (the same as February) -- newer and other niche players showed gains.

Peacock usage grew to a best-ever 1.1% of total TV usage -- vs. 1.0% in February -- while Pluto TV rose to 0.8% (vs. 0.7% in February).

Broadcast TV share fell to a 23.3% share, from 23.9% in February.




The biggest programming genre was general drama, accounting for 30.5% of broadcast viewing -- largely due to a significant push from “The Oscars” content. A year ago, broadcast TV was at 25.2% share.

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