Streaming’s Share of TV Viewing Rises to Record 30.4%: Nielsen

Streaming’s Share of TV Viewing Rises to Record 30.4%: Nielsen. HBO Max registers 1% share

Netflix, reeling after the stunning announcement that it lost 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter, increased its share of viewing in the U.S. in March, according to new figures from Nielsen.

Nielsen said Netflix had a 6.6 share of viewing for the month, up from 6.4% in February. The news of Netflix’s first decline in subscribers sent Netflix shock down 35% in trading Wednesday.

Netflix’s viewing bounce contributed to a record 29.7% share of viewing for streaming. Viewing of YouTube, Hulu and Disney Plus were all up, while Amazon Prime Video was flat.

Overall viewing was down, and time spend with streaming content was down 4.2% from February.

Broadcast lost share, falling to 24.9% of viewing from 26% in February. Broadcast viewing was impacted by a 53% decrease in sports viewing compared to February when NBC aired the Super Bowl and the Winter Olympics.

Drama programming stood out as the genre of choice for many broadcast consumers in March, increasing viewership by 17% from February and accounting for one-third of broadcast’s share. While broadcast news consumption remained relatively flat at 14% of broadcast viewing, the volume of broadcast news programming dropped 6% versus the prior month. 

Cable’s share rose to 36.9% from 35.4% and time spent viewing rose as well. Cable news viewing was up 14% from February and accounted for 21% of the cable share, driven by continuing news coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. ■

BY Jon Lafayette