Linear TV viewing drops below 50% of U.S. television usage for the first time

Linear TV, broadcast, and cable TV dropped below 50% in July 2023 in terms of total share among American viewers for the first time, according to Nielsen’s July 2023 report of The Gauge.

Cable’s share fell below 30% for the first time last month, losing a full share point to stand at 29.6%. Broadcast usage fell 3.6%, down 0.8 points. On a year-over-year basis, broadcast viewing was down 5.4% (-1.5 points), and cable viewing was down 12.5% (-4.8 points). Overall TV usage increased 0.2% during the month (and usage among audiences under 18 was up 4%).

The main factor for this drop is no secret: streaming. In a year, streaming viewing increased by 3.9%, reaching a share of 38.7%.

Streaming services like YouTube and Netflix accounted for a record 38.7% of total U.S. TV usage, the category’s largest share reported in Nielsen’s The Gauge monthly report to date.

YouTube accounted for 9.2% of total viewing, surpassing Netflix, which obtained 8.5% of that digital share. Hulu 3.6%; Prime Video 3.4%; Disney+ 2%; Max 1.4%; Tubi 1.4%; Peacock 1.1%; The Roku Channel 1.1%; Paramount+ 1%, and Pluto TV 0.9%.