The streamer took home a 1.5% share of TV last month, marking its second best share ever recorded by Nielsen (it hit 1.6% in January) and a 33% increase month-over-month. This was due in part to the Paris Olympics, which kicked off at the end of July and, despite only three days of recorded viewing in this interval, had an apparent effect.
Total TV usage was up 2.3% in July compared to June, and it was also up 3.5% from July 2023. Nielsen reports that the final week of July, which marked the start of Olympic coverage, pushed the broadcast average up to over 22% of total TV. On average across the month, broadcast accounted for just 20.3% of TV usage — a slight uptick versus the month prior.
The Olympics accounted for the Top 5, and seven of the Top 10, broadcast telecasts in July. The largest audience was recorded on July 28 with 19M viewers for the first day of the actual Summer Games after the Opening Ceremony on Saturday night drew nearly 29M.
It wasn’t just the Olympics that gave Peacock a leg up in July. The streamer also saw some unprecedented success for Season 6 of Love Island USA . The franchise, which also includes Love Island UK , per Nielsen’s reporting, saw its highest viewership ever on streaming in the week leading up to the finale of the U.S. spinoff. According to Nielsen, the series draws half of its audience from the core streaming demo, 18- to 34-year-olds.
July is typically a peak month for streaming, and this year was no exception. For the second consecutive month, streaming managed the best performance by a single viewing category (streaming, broadcast or cable) that Nielsen has ever recorded, accounting for 41.4% of all TV viewing. That’s up 5% from June. The month now holds four of Nielsen’s 10 most-streamed days on record.
The first week of the month saw every title in Nielsen’s weekly Top 10 surpass 1B minutes, which has never happened before. One of those titles was The Boys , which ended the month third among streaming programs with 4.2B minutes viewed and helped Prime Video get a 12% boost in viewing for July to account for 3.4% of TV usage.
House of the Dragon came in No. 1 among streaming programs for the month with 4.7B minutes viewed, boosting Max’s TV usage by 4%. The show premiered in June and aired throughout July, ending with a strong finale audience in August.
Bluey dominated once again, landing in second place with 4.3B minutes viewed, helping Disney+ earn its best monthly finish with 2.1% of total TV (a 9.2% lift from June).
The Republican National Convention drove strong viewing for cable news in July, though it wasn’t enough for the category to retain its share of TV from June. It ended the month having lost half a share point, accounting for 26.7% of total TV. Still, Nielsen reports that news alone was up 23% compared to June and 52% compared to July 2023.
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