This is a quick snapshot of TV by the numbers for the month of July, 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. You can see June’s rankings here.
Most-Watched Shows and Networks
Via Inscape.tv, the TV data company with insights from a panel of more than 15 million 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 in July by smart TVs that Inscape measured, 0.86% of the time was spent on Good Morning America, putting it in first place for percent share duration (it was also No. 1 in June). PGA Tour Golf followed in second place with 0.84% and Friends (0.82%) just barely edged out Today for third.
On the network side of things, of all minutes watched in July, 6.09% of the time was spent on Fox News, making it No. 1 for the second month in a row — and in fact, there was no change in the rankings month-over-month for the top eight networks. Hallmark took ninth place with 2.01% share duration, a move up from June when it was No. 12. ESPN is also on the rise, moving from No. 19 in June to No. 14 in July.
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.
Morning talk shows and other news programs dominated the top 25 list, with the sole outliers being PGA Tour, MLB games, Days of Our Lives and SportsCenter. Good Morning America took first place with nearly 4.1 billion TV ad impressions, followed by Today (3.8 billion) and America’s Newsroom (3.2 billion). It’s worth noting that NBA games narrowly missed out on the ranking, coming in at No. 27 with 1.3 billion TV ad impressions.
Looking at networks, cable news took top spots, led by Fox News with nearly 26 billion TV ad impressions and CNN with 16.5 billion, while MSNBC came in sixth place with 10.3 billion impressions. Three Spanish-language networks made the top 25 list: Univision in seventh place (6.8 billion impressions), Telemundo in ninth (3.8 billion) and UniMás at No. 24 (1.3 billion).
