Streaming, cable grow audience share in June as broadcast shrinks

Streaming platforms and cable networks increased their share of TV viewers’ time in June, while broadcast networks shrunk some. Netflix remains the top streamer, taking up 7 percent of all TV viewing for the month.

Those are the findings from Nielsen’s second monthly release of “The Gauge,” which tracks total usage of TV across all platforms. For June, cable retained the biggest share of viewers’ attention, taking up 40 percent of total TV usage across the full day, while streaming grabbed a 27 percent share of usage.

Both of those were up 1 percentage point vs. the initial Gauge rankings in May. Cable and streaming each took a point off of broadcast networks, which slipped from 25 percent to 23 percent of total TV use. That’s not a huge surprise given that late May marked the end of the traditional broadcast season, while cable likely got a boost from high-profile sports events like the NBA and NHL playoffs. Other TV usage — including gaming, VOD and streaming from cable boxes and playback of physical media — was stable at 9 percent of total usage.

Netflix had the largest share of any streaming platform with 7 percent of total TV usage, a point ahead of YouTube (6 percent, including its YouTube TV service). Hulu (3 percent) and Amazon Prime Video (2 percent) were both even, while Disney+ ticked up to 2 percent. All other streaming platforms combined for 8 percent of total TV use.

Among individual titles for the week of June 14-20, NBC drama Manifest was the top performer. It had a huge week with nearly 2.5 billion minutes of viewing time for its first two seasons, among the highest tallies for an acquired title since Nielsen began tracking weekly viewing 10 months ago. The spike in viewing — it more than doubled the previous week’s tally — came in the same week NBC canceled the show after three seasons.

Loki ascended to the top spot among original streaming series in its second week on Disney+. The Marvel series grew to 886 million minutes of viewing time, a 21 percent gain over its premiere. Pixar’s Luca also had a big debut on Disney+, topping the movie chart and finishing second overall with 1.57 billion minutes of watch time. The Handmaid’s Tale also improved in the week of its fourth-season finale, rising by about 20 percent to 505 million minutes.

Nielsen’s streaming ratings cover viewing on TV sets only and don’t include minutes watched on computers or mobile devices. The ratings only measure U.S. audiences, not those in other countries, and currently only include Amazon, Disney+, Hulu and Netflix. The Hollywood Reporter