Streaming made TV history for a second consecutive month in the US in July 2024 as it notched the most dominant performance by a single viewing category ever in Nielsen’s The Gauge report, accounting for 41.4 per cent of TV viewing. Streaming levels were over 5 per cent higher in July compared to June, leading streaming to grow its share of TV by more than a point (+1.1 pt.) and break the previous record it set in the previous month.

July also ushered in the beginning of the Summer Olympics in Paris, and despite only three days of coverage included in the July Gauge report, the impact the Games had on TV viewing was evident. Total TV usage was up 2.3 per cent in July compared to the previous month, and up 3.5 per cent compared to July 2023. Broadcast viewing increased slightly in July to 20.3 per cent of TV, but was up 5 per cent compared to a year ago. The category also finished 0.3 points higher than July 2023 when it recorded its lowest share ever (20 per cent of TV). When TV usage is isolated by week, the start of Olympics coverage in the final week of July pushed the broadcast average up to over 22 per cent of total TV. This is further emphasised by the fact that the Olympics accounted for the top five, and seven of the top 10, broadcast telecasts in the July report, with the largest audience averaging 19 million viewers on NBC on July 28th.

Peacock’s coverage of the Olympics vaulted the streamer to 1.5p er cent of TV (+0.3 pt.) and its second best share of TV ever (behind 1.6 per cent in January 2024). Also boosted by viewing to Love Island USA, Peacock’s 33 per cent monthly usage increase in July was the largest for any streaming platform in The Gauge. It was followed by two more streamers with double-digit monthly increases: Prime Video viewing was up 12 per cent from June to notch 3.4 per cent of TV (+0.3 pt.), its best since November 2023. The Roku Channel was up 10 per cent and added 0.1 point to achieve a platform best 1.6 per cent of TV.

July is typically a peak month for streaming usage, and this year, each week of the July interval led to the top four most streamed weeks ever reported by Nielsen. The streaming fireworks kicked off with a notable week in Nielsen’s Streaming Top 10 when, for the first time ever, 10 titles exceeded 1 billion viewing minutes. What’s more, July 2024 now holds four of the top 10 most streamed days on record.

YouTube became the first streaming platform ever to exceed 10 per cent of total TV usage in July. The most popular streamer shot up 7 per cent versus last month, accounting for 10.4 per cent of TV usage (+0.5 pt.). This comes after YouTube hit 9.9 per cent of TV in June and secured the second largest share of TV viewing among all media distributors.

House of the Dragon on Max topped streaming programmes in July with 4.7 billion viewing minutes in the US, also helping to drive an increase of over 4 per cent for the streamer to retain its 1.4 per cent share of TV. It was followed by Bluey on Disney+ with 4.3 billion viewing minutes in July. Disney+ usage was up 9.2 per cent this month to finish with a platform best 2.1 per cent of TV. Prime Video’s original series The Boys was third among streaming programmes with 4.2 billion viewing minutes.

Cable viewing in July was even compared to June, but due to the larger increase of overall TV usage, the category lost half a share point and ended the month with 26.7 per cent of TV. Cable news viewing saw a strong increase in July, driven by the Republican National Convention and coverage of the assassination attempt on former President Trump. The news genre was up 23 per cent compared to June, and up 52 per cent compared to July 2023. Of July’s top 25 cable telecasts, Fox News Channel owned 24 of them.

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Categories: Articles, Broadcast, Cable, Consumer Behaviour, OTT, Research, VOD

Tags: bluey, house of the dragon, MAX, nielsen, Olympics, Peacock