After falling below 50% of viewing in July, broadcasting and cable combined for a 50.6% share of total TV usage in August, according to Nielsen’s monthly report.
Nielsen said the rebound was part of the seasonal shift in viewing as the fall TV season nears and the return of kids to school impacts streaming.
This year’s fall season is likely to be subdued because of the strikes by the actors and writers unions, which will leave schedules loaded with more reality and game shows than usual.
July is also a bit of a sports vacuum for broadcast and cable, falling between the NBA and NHL Stanley Cup finals and the start of football season.
Broadcast viewing increased 1.6% in August from July, boosting its share to 20.4% from 20%. August marked the first gain for broadcast since January.
Broadcast benefited from increased viewing for shows including America’s Got Talent on NBC and Big Brother on CBS, Nielsen said.
Compared to a year ago, broadcast viewing was down 5.5% in August.
Cable viewing gained 1.7% from July, raising its share of TV use to 30.2% from 29.6% in July.
Sports viewing on cable was up 21.6%, boosted by NFL preseason games. There was also an 18% increase in cable news viewing with the first presidential debate being televised. Nielsen noted that about 85% of the increase in cable viewing was driven by viewers 65 years old and up.
Year over year, cable viewing was down 10.6%
Streaming viewing was down 1.6% in August compared to July and its share of TV use fell to 38.3% of TV usage from 38.7% in July. About 80% of the drop in streaming was the result of less viewing by viewers aged 2 to 17.
Nielsen said Comcast’s Peacock had the largest increase among streaming services — 8.3% — thanks to events including WWE SummerSlam and the NFL Hall of Fame Game, as well as The Super Mario Brothers Movie.
Paramount Plus also posted a healthy 4.2% gain with Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Special Ops: Lioness attracting viewers.
Among the top streaming services, YouTube had the largest share of TV usage at 9.1%, down from 9.2% in July.
Netflix’s share fell to 8.2% from 8.5%; Hulu had a 3.6% share, down 3.6%; Amazon Prime Video was flat with 3.4% share; Disney Plus was unchanged at 2%; Fox’s Tubi had a 1.3% share, down from 1.4%; Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max had 1.3%, down from 1.4% Peacock rose to a 1.2% share from 1.1%; The Roku Channel had 1.1%, unchanged; Paramount Plus rose to 1.1% from 1% and Pluto TV held steady at 0.9%.
Suits, which streams on both Netflix and Peacock, remained the top streaming title in August with 11.7 billion minutes viewed, followed by Netflix’s original series The Lincoln Lawyer with 4.5 billion minutes.
Despite the drop in streaming usage among viewers under 18, Disney Plus had the third- and fourth-most-watched streaming titles in August with Bluey (4.2 billion minutes) and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (3.2 billion minutes).
