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.