Gaming again takes TV share from broadcast in Nielsen’s Gauge

• December meant a second month of holiday videogaming season – and that meant broadcast television gave up just a little more TV share to gaming as a category.
• Broadcast TV shed another point to fall to 26.1% of TV usage in December, according to “The Gauge” from Nielsen, its monthly macro look at TV delivery platforms.
• That puts its a little further behind streaming, which two months ago was tied with broadcast but now sits nearly two points higher at 27.7% share of TV use. And the extra time is still accruing to gaming, part of an “Other” use category that expanded to 8.9% in December from 7% in November. (“Other” includes activities like watching video discs along with gaming.)
• Meanwhile, cable share is holding mostly steady, at 37.3% in December:
• Streaming was a “clear outlier” during Christmas week, Nielsen noted, with Americans watching a total 183 billion minutes through over-the-top platforms – well over the 178 billion minutes watched during Thanksgiving the month before. And streaming took a 33% share of total TV viewing during Christmas week as well, more than during the rest of the month.
• Of that 27.7% share taken by streamers in December, Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) continues to lead all individual providers with 6.4% share, though rivals are slowly chipping away at that number. Behind it was YouTube/YouTube TV (GOOG, GOOGL) at 5.8% share; Hulu and Hulu Live (DIS, CMCSA) at 3.0% share; Amazon Prime Video (NASDAQ:AMZN) at 2.1% share; and Disney+ (NYSE:DIS) at 1.6%.
• “Other streaming” (including linear streamers like Spectrum (NASDAQ:CHTR), DirecTV and Sling TV (NASDAQ:DISH)) held relatively flat at a combined 8.8% share.
• Pay TV distributors: Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA), Charter (CHTR), DirecTV/U-verse (T), Dish Network (DISH), Verizon FiOS (NYSE:VZ), Optimum/Suddenlink (NYSE:ATUS), Atlantic Broadband (OTCPK:CGEAF), Sparklight (NYSE:CABO).
• Relevant local broadcast tickers: Nexstar Media Group (NASDAQ:NXST), Sinclair Broadcast Group (NASDAQ:SBGI), Gray Television (NYSE:GTN), Tegna (NYSE:TGNA), E.W. Scripps (NASDAQ:SSP). National broadcasters: ABC (DIS), NBC (CMCSA), CBS (VIAC, VIACA), Fox (FOX, FOXA). And some ad-tech names tied to connected TV: The Trade Desk (NASDAQ:TTD), Magnite (NASDAQ:MGNI), PubMatic (NASDAQ:PUBM), Criteo (NASDAQ:CRTO), Roku (NASDAQ:ROKU).

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