Nielsen: NFL fuels historic spike in US broadcast viewership
October 22, 2025
Broadcast viewership came roaring back in September as American football drove an unprecedented monthly spike in watch-time for the category, according to Nielsen’s monthly The Gauge report – a snapshot of total TV and streaming consumption. Time spent watching broadcast programming shot up 20 per cent month-over-month (compared to +3 per cent across all TV) to generate a gain of 3.2 share points, notching the largest monthly increases in volume and share for any category in The Gauge since tracking began in May 2021. On top of that, broadcast concluded September with 22.3 per cent of overall television viewing, which put it ahead of the cable category on an unrounded basis for the first time ever in The Gauge.
The record jump for broadcast was attributable to NFL and college football, as sports viewership tripled to represent 33 per cent of broadcast’s total in September, versus 11 per cent in August. Some 15 telecasts in September – all NFL games, across CBS, Fox and NBC – outpaced August’s most-watched telecast, with September’s biggest audience more than doubling it.
On cable, sports viewership increased by 11 per cent in September, and NFL games also dominated the category’s most-watched telecasts. The top five cable telecasts for the month included four Monday Night Football games on ESPN, plus the first international NFL game of the season on NFL Network. The primary driver of September cable viewing, however, was news, which increased 9 per cent and represented over a quarter of the category’s viewing total.
Notably, viewing gains for broadcast and cable were driven primarily by younger audiences, indicating strong engagement with the expanded sports slate. The largest monthly increases for both categories came from 25-34 year-olds, as broadcast viewing among that group climbed 65 per cent, and cable viewing was up 16 per cent.
Streaming continued to dominate TV usage and owned 45.2 per cent of total watch-time in September. The impact of football extended into streaming this month as well, most notably with Prime Video. The streamer saw its most-watched NFL Thursday Night Football game ever on the platform on September 11th, as the Washington Commanders v Green Bay Packers matchup generated over 3 billion minutes viewed.
The summer cooldown was clear, however, with fewer high-profile content releases to suggest a strategic shift by streamers. This was further evidenced by a reduced number of billion-minute titles in Nielsen’s weekly Streaming Top 10, where a streaming-heavy July saw 18 titles exceed one billion weekly viewing minutes, compared to 10 titles in September. Nevertheless, the Netflix original series Wednesday separated itself from the pack, dominating streaming titles with over 7 billion viewing minutes across the month. Wednesday’s total nearly doubled that of the No. 2 title, Netflix movie KPop Demon Hunters, which continued its run and drew 3.6 billion minutes. Even with this strong performance, Netflix dropped back slightly, losing -0.4 share points to finish with 8.3 per cent of TV.
Although YouTube continued to feel the back-to-school impact from 6-17 year-olds, declining 2 per cent versus August, it remained the most-watched streaming platform and represented 12.6 per cent of television viewing in September.
The September 2025 interval spanned four weeks, from September 1st to September 28th.
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