Football season officially kicked off in September to the delight of fans across the country, as the highly anticipated return of NFL and college games attracted viewers by the millions. Nielsen’s September 2024 report of The Gauge™ revealed that NFL viewership this month notably reflected audiences’ familiarization with the cross-platform distribution of its games. This was most clearly indicated by the 12% bump in Amazon Prime Video viewership in September*, which was driven largely by Thursday Night Football, and ultimately led it to match its platform-best share of TV (set in September 2023 and tied in October 2023) at 3.6%.
Peacock also benefited from NFL-driven audiences with its exclusive coverage of Green Bay vs. Philadelphia on September 6. The NFL’s debut in São Paulo, Brazil garnered 2.6 billion viewing minutes, making the game the 11th most streamed program in September. The resurgence of the NFL was also evident on the broadcast side, as NFL games accounted for 14 of the top 15 broadcast telecasts in September, with the top three garnering over 3 billion viewing minutes each on NBC, CBS and FOX. Additionally, broadcast sports viewing was up nearly 9% compared to August, despite already coming off a 44% increase the previous month due to the surge from the Olympics.
Streaming maintained its 41.0% share of TV in September despite viewership declining slightly from August (-2.2%), in line with seasonal trends. Prime Video exhibited the largest monthly growth among all reported streaming platforms in September (+12%), driven by the aforementioned Thursday Night Football, as well as its original series The Rings of Power, which was this month’s third most watched streaming title with 4.3 billion viewing minutes.
Disney+ was next in line for streaming service growth with a 5.2% bump in viewership to notch a platform-best 2.5% share of TV in September (+0.2 pt.). The gain for Disney+ was partially due to it benefitting from making Hulu content available on the platform for package subscribers, in addition to a 4.2 billion minute month for Bluey (4th overall). Netflix retained its 7.9% share of TV and owned September’s best performing streaming title, its original series The Perfect Couple, which garnered 5.5 billion viewing minutes. YouTube also maintained its share of TV from August and continued to lead all streaming platforms with 10.6% of TV usage in September.
Streaming has climbed 11% on a year-over-year basis, and most of the gain has been disproportionately driven by platforms with over 30% YOY growth, including Disney+, Peacock and Tubi. The Roku Channel was the biggest mover of the year, however, as viewership on the FAST platform has grown 42% compared with last September.
The broadcast category gained 0.6 share points to account for 22.6% of overall TV in September. In addition to the boost from NFL programming, broadcast drama viewing received an 11% uptick following seasonal debuts for several scripted series. On the broadcast news side, ABC’s simulcast of the Harris-Trump presidential debate also gave the category a lift as 67.1 million viewers tuned in across all 17 airing networks, and over 45 million viewers watched on one of the nine broadcast networks that aired the debate.
Cable viewing in September accounted for 26.1% of overall TV, down 0.2 share points from August. The loss was a partial result of the large volume of sports and news content provided by the Olympics and four-day DNC last month, as the cable sports and news genres were down 17.1% and 4%, respectively. The ABC presidential debate provided some support for the category, with coverage netting nearly 22 million viewers across eight airing cable networks, including over 9 million viewers on FOX News Channel. The top cable telecast in September, however, would go to the NFL Monday Night Football matchup between the Atlanta Falcons and Philadelphia Eagles on ESPN with over 13 million viewers.
* The measurement month of September 2024 included five weeks: 08/26/2024 through 09/29/2024. Nielsen measurement weeks run Monday through Sunday.
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