Streaming Just Broke Another Nielsen Record

Streaming isn’t just chillin’ this summer, it’s breakin’ records.

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In June, streaming accounted for 40.3 percent of the total TV and streaming usage as measured by Nielsen. It’s a new record (since Nielsen launched The Gauge in May 2021) for any single category, besting the 40.1 percent put up by cable in June 2021. In other words, streaming is now bigger than cable was (a bit) more than three years ago.

Netflix was the big gainer in June 2024. Surprise, surprise. Led by the new “Bridgerton” episodes and the acquired Showtime series “Your Honor,” Netflix grew its share of the overall pie by 0.8 basis points and climbed to 8.4 percent of all TV usage. (It hit 8.5 percent in July 2023.)

Amazon Prime Video got a 0.1 share-point bump from “The Boys.” Peacock’s share grew by the same amount. Max rode “House of the Dragon” to an additional 0.2 share points in June; the same growth was seen at Disney+.

YouTube is still the solo streaming champ and accounted by 9.9 percent of all TV usage in June, while Tubi reached a 2 percent share ; both are platform highs.

The four streamers that saw double-digit usage growth in June are: Disney+ (+14.8 percent), Tubi (+14.7 percent), Netflix (+11.8 percent), and Max (+11.0 percent).

All told, streaming viewership increased 6 percent from May, when the category reached 38.8 percent, it’s previous best. Kids led the way with a 16 percent viewing increase among those age 2-11. Summer break!

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Of course, there still is TV TV. And despite what you may have read (on IndieWire as well as other publications), it is still relevant. Just less so.

Last month broadcast’s piece of the pie slipped to 20.5 percent and cable dipped to 27.2 percent.

The top 7 broadcast telecasts of June all aired on ABC: five were NBA Finals games, followed by ABC’s simulcast of CNN’s Presidential Debate , and Game 7 of the NHL Stanley Cup Finals. The top two cable telecasts of the month were both the presidential debate. How is that possible? CNN got more than 10 million viewers; Fox News Channel’s simulcast landed 9.5 million viewers.

Look out for the Paris Summer Olympics dominating TV at the end of this month and through (almost) the first half of August.

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Below is The Gauge for June. The monthly Gauge report breaks out any streaming platform that has — at one point or another — had at least 1 percent of the total TV and streaming viewing. Hence the Pluto TV inclusion.