Cable Viewing Rebounded During March 2023

Nielsen says seasonality plays a key role in TV viewing, and so do high-profile sporting events. March was no-exception in both cases, as total TV usage declined, but the onset of NCAA basketball playoffs provided a seasonal bump to cable viewing. In fact, the arrival of March Madness gave cable its biggest boost since last year’s tournament—and its first uptick since August 2022. Cable was also the lone gainer in the month, with viewing up 0.6%.

The appeal of the tournament among sports fans highlights the impact that high-demand content has on viewership, regardless of platform or channel. Outside of March Madness, TV viewing trends in the month were in line with seasonal trends, with total usage down 2% from February 2023.

The 95th Oscars fueled a 153% increase in the award/ceremonies category on broadcast, but it, along with a 2.7% increase in drama viewing, wasn’t enough to offset declines in news (-4.4%) and sitcom (-8.1%) viewing. Outside of sports, which accounted for 9.5% of cable usage in March, viewing trends on cable were similar, with feature film and news viewing down 5.1% and 6.7%, respectively. On a year-over-year basis, cable viewing was down 13.7% (5.9 share points).

While streaming lost only 0.2 share points in March, the dip represents streaming’s first loss of share since August 2022, when it dropped 0.1 point at the onset of NCAA and NFL football. Since then, it has grown its share four times and remained flat twice. Yet while streaming usage was down 2.6% since February, the category is still up by more than a third on a year-over-year basis (almost 8 share points).

Across platforms, Pluto TV was the biggest gainer, as a 4.6% increase in usage pushed its share back up to 0.8%. Peacock viewing increased 3.1% to set a high water mark of 1.1% in total TV usage. Other notable streaming highlights include:

• Viewers watched more than 4.7 billion minutes of Outer Banks on Netflix.
• The new season of The Mandalorian on Disney+, with new episodes released weekly, attracted more than 3.6 billion viewing minutes, making it the second-most streamed program in March.
• You generated almost 3.6 billion viewing minutes on Netflix.
• YouTube, excluding YouTube TV, remained the most-used platform, claiming 7.8% of total TV usage.

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