Streaming Grows to 36.4% of TV Usage in May

New data from Nielsen’s The Gauge shows that May was a good month for streaming, with streaming growing its market share by 2.5 share points to a 36.4% share of time spent watching TV in May as overall TV viewing declined for the fourth straight month. 

Viewing declines are typical this time of year, Nielsen said. Total TV usage in the U.S. fell in May 4.4% from April. In May, time spent watching TV declined 2.7% compared to May of 2022.

Nielsen’s The Gauge, which offers a monthly snapshot of total broadcast, cable and streaming consumption that occurs via television, also found that 31.1% of TV viewing was spent watching cable content, and 22.8% with broadcast content. On a year-over-year basis, broadcast viewing was down 5.6% (-1.7 share points), and cable viewing was down 13.7% (-5.4 share points).

TVTechnology reports Nielsen said that a technical enhancement in the way it calculates viewing was a factor in the monthly uptick but that approximately half of the increase was a reflection of viewing behavior alone.

Nielsen also reported data for the Roku Channel for the first time. Representing 1.1% of TV usage in May, the Roku Channel is the latest streaming service, and third free ad-supported television (FAST) service, to get enough viewers to be included in The Gauge's coverage.