Streaming media maintained its hold as the top use of a TV in December, though it stopped rising its share for the first time in nearly a year as the holiday month brought its usual share of additional video games.
He The proportion of TV time spent on streaming media fell to 38.1% from 38.2% in November, according to Nielsen’s “The Gauge,” the ratings firm’s monthly overview of delivery platforms. of TV.
But time spent on transmission it’s actually up 0.2% since November, a testament to how many TVs are being handed over to games during school holidays and with Christmas gaming gifts.
The “Other” category (mainly video games, but which also includes uses like watching video discs) saw its share increase from 4.3% to 6.3% in December, and that came mostly at the expense of other uses. Major TV: Cable’s share decreased for the fourth consecutive month, from 31.8% to 30.9%, and Broadcast’s share fell for the second consecutive month, from 25.7% to 24.7%.
Unlike Streaming, however, Cable and Broadcast also saw lower volume usage since November, falling 2.4% and 3.7% month-over-month, with a post-election drop hitting Cable particularly hard. Sports viewing declined, while increases in Christmas movie viewing mitigated some declines there.
In terms of the share of TV time taken by specific broadcasters, Peacock (CMCSA) became the last to cross the 1% share threshold and earned its own entry on the chart rather than being lumped in with “other broadcasters” .
The leaders there continued to trickle down a bit of share, as the space continued to fragment with new offerings. YouTube/YouTube TV (NASDAQ:GOOG) (GOOGL) remained in first place, although it fell back to 8.7% from 8.8% in November; Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) fell back to 7.5% share from 7.6%; and Hulu (DIS) (CMCSA) fell to 3.4% from 3.9% the previous month.
There were profits to be made. Amazon Prime Video (NASDAQ:AMZN) increased its share to 2.7% from 2.6%; Disney+ (DIS) fell back to 1.9% from 2.0%; HBO Max (NASDAQ:WBD) jumped from 1.2% to 1.4% and led usage gains among streamers (up 18.1% with some help from a second season of The White Lotus). Peacock (CMCSA) appeared at 1% and Pluto TV (PARA) (PARAA) dipped to 0.8% from 0.9%.
“Other streaming” (including smaller services like Crackle (CSSE), as well as linear streamers like Spectrum (CHTR), DirecTV, and Sling TV (DISH)) lost combined share, coming to 10.7% from 11.3% of november.
In terms of weekly streaming content ratings, Amazon Prime Video (AMZN) made its last appearance with original content, though it was even dwarfed by Netflix’s latest big movie.
Netflix Movie (NFLX) glass onion was the most watched content in the latest weekly broadcast ratings (December 19–25), reaching 2.225 billion minutes despite only running for three days of that measurement week.
Prime Video (AMZN) hit again with a third season of its Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan franchise, which was second with 1,834B minutes. Three other shows aired a billion minutes during the week, all Netflix Originals (NFLX): Previous No. 1 Wednesday, with 1,797B minutes; the recruit, with 1,695B minutes; Y Emily in Paris with 1,389B minutes.
Rounding out the overall top 10: No. 6, CoComelon (NFLX), 991 million minutes; no 7, Home alone (DIS), 926 million minutes; no 8, How the Grinch stole Christmas (WBD), 864 million minutes; no 9, Elf (WBD), 836 million minutes; and no. 10, NCIS (NFLX), 804 million minutes.
(Nielsen streaming ratings now incorporate viewing from seven major streamers: Amazon Prime Video (AMZN), Apple TV+ (AAPL), Disney+ (DIS), HBO Max (WBD), Hulu (DIS) (CMCSA), Netflix (NFLX) and Peacock (CMSA).)
Pay TV Distributors: Comcast (CMCSA), Charter (CHTR), Dish Network (DISH), Verizon FiOS (VZ), Optimum/Suddenlink (ATUS), Atlantic Broadband (OTCPK:CGEAF), Sparklight (CABO).
Relevant local broadcast tickers: Nexstar Media Group (NXST), Sinclair Broadcast Group (SBGI), Gray Television (GTN), Tegna (TGNA), EW Scripps (SSP). National Broadcasters: ABC (DIS), NBC (CMCSA), CBS (PARA) (PARAA), Fox (FOX) (FOXA). And some ad tech names tied to connected TV: The Trade Desk (TTD), Magnite (MGNI), PubMatic (PUBM), Criteo (CRTO), Roku (ROKU).
