Nielsen: Broadcast Hits its Stride in October

Broadcast viewership continued its seasonal ascent in October, lifted by gains in both sports and drama viewing, according to Nielsen’s October 2024 report of The Gauge™. The broadcast category exhibited 7% monthly growth and added 1.4 share points in October to finish at 24.0% of total time spent watching television—its largest monthly share of TV since January. October marked the third consecutive month of growth for broadcast, and the category has added 3.7 share points over that time period.

October gains in broadcast viewership were driven by a 29% increase in viewing to drama programs, and a 10% bump in sports viewership. NFL games once again dominated the month’s top broadcast telecasts, notching the top 16 most-watched programs. The Week 7 matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers drew October’s largest audience with 27 million viewers on FOX. Outside of football, Game 1 of the World Series on FOX notched 15.2 million viewers and captured 17th on the list of top telecasts.

Cable viewing accounted for 26.3% of total TV usage in October (+0.2 pt.), and the category notched its first positive share change since April. Cable viewership was lifted by a 5% gain in news viewing, led by the Vice Presidential Debate on October 1 and month-long coverage leading up to Election Day, and a 52% boost in sports viewing driven by NFL Monday Night Football, college football and MLB playoff games. Sports and news programs were also at the top of the most-watched cable telecasts list in October, with the NFL Monday Night Football game between Kansas City and New Orleans taking the top slot with 14 million viewers on ESPN, followed by FOX News Channel’s presentation of the VP Debate which drew 7.9 million viewers on the network. On a yearly basis, cable news was up 17% compared to October 2023, while cable sports was up 14%.

The Gauge™: Broadcast Hits its Stride in October on Strength of Drama and Sports Programming | Nielsen

Streaming viewership in October was fairly flat compared to last month, with eight of the 11 reported streaming services within 0.1 share point or less of their September totals. The category accounted for 40.5% of total time spent watching TV (-0.5 pt.). Among the streamers with larger monthly differentials, The Roku Channel was up 12% and added 0.2 share points to finish the month at 1.8% of television, a high point for the FAST service. Netflix was down 4% with 7.5% of TV (-0.4 pt.), but still managed to own the top five streaming originals this month, led by Love Is Blind, which was also the top streaming title in October, with 4.4 billion viewing minutes.

* Note: A portion of Hulu’s viewing (estimated at approximately 25%) was inadvertently attributed to Disney+ during this interval. The issue was addressed at the end of October and will be correct moving forward. This will not impact the October Media Distributor Gauge.