Traditional television is no longer the heart of the living room.
New data from Nielson finds that for the first time ever, Americans spent less than half of their viewing time watching TV. Streaming services and other platforms, collectively, have become more popular.
It’s the latest in a rolling series of blows for linear television and cable companies, which have seen their audience shrink regularly for the past 10 years.
In July, viewers spent 38.7% of their viewing time watching streaming services. Cable viewership only made up 29.6% of the overall total, while broadcast TV took up 20%. Remaining viewership was in a catch-all category that includes DVDs and gaming.
Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, and YouTube all hit all-time high viewership levels last month.
Just because people are watching entertainment in a new way doesn’t necessarily mean they’re focused on new shows, though. The most watched show in July was not Netflix’s The Witcher or Disney+’s Secret Invasion, it was Suits, which ran from 2011–2019.
Americans spent 18 billion minutes watching the show which starred (among others) Meghan Markle. The children’s show Bluey was the month’s other big winner.
The exodus to streaming services comes as Hollywood writers and actors are both currently on strike, with no end in sight. Disney, meanwhile, is considering selling off its linear TV holdings, as CEO Bob Iger sours on the format.
TV and cable aren’t fully down for the count, Nielsen notes. As fall rolls around and the NFL kicks off its 2023–2024 season, many of those viewers are likely to return. Last November, for instance, sports accounted for 150 billion viewing minutes on broadcast. In July, across all channels, sports viewing generated just 25 billion viewing minutes, even with the start of the Women’s World Cup.
