This is a quick snapshot of TV by the numbers for the week of Sept. 21-27, revealing the most-watched shows and networks using glass-level data from Inscape, and the top shows and networks by TV ad impressions with insights via iSpot.tv.
Most-Watched Shows and Networks
Via Inscape, the TV data company with insights from a panel of more than 16 million active and opted-in smart TVs. Data is linear, live TV only and includes all episode types (new and reruns). Rankings are by percent share duration (i.e., time spent watching).
Looking at shows, of all the minutes watched by smart TVs that Inscape measured in all dayparts, 7.29% of the time was spent on NFL games. This time, Fox captured the largest percent share duration of NFL games (2.37%), followed by NBC (2.05%) and ABC (1.46%). The NBA moved up from third to second place this time around with 1.92% share duration. Notably, the season finale of America’s Got Talent made the ranking at No. 17 and The First 48 on A&E took No. 18.
On the network side of things, NBC maintained its hold on first place with a 7.65% share duration, a drop from last week’s 8.59%. ABC and Fox both moved up, taking second and third places, respectively, while Fox News remained at No. 4 (6.53%) and CBS took fifth (5.85%). Hallmark Channel, Investigation Discovery and Food Network continued to hold firm on their middle spots in the ranking.
Top Shows and Networks by TV Ad Impressions
Via iSpot.tv, the always-on TV ad measurement and attribution company. Rankings are by TV ad impressions, for new episodes only.
NFL continues to reign supreme, this time racking up over 8.1 billion TV ad impressions, a 5.84% increase from the previous week. NBA games edged out college football by a slim margin, 2.3 billion impressions vs. 2.2 billion. Of the top 15 programs, only one was not sports or news-related: The Young and the Restless (343.4 million impressions). With four of the Stanley Cup final games occurring during the period measured, NHL rose in the ranking, up 25.84% compared to the previous week, with 482 million impressions.
Propelled by football — mainly NFL but some college games, too — ABC jumped up the ranking into first place this time with nearly 5.4 billion TV ad impressions. NBC barely surpassed Fox News, with 5.08 billion impressions vs. 5.06 billion. Thanks primarily to football, baseball and The Masked Singer, Fox saw a 219.75% week-over-week increase, snagging fourth place with 4.6 billion impressions, while CBS was just behind (4.3 billion impressions).
