Streaming viewership tops cable TV for first time in US

Blame it on the lack of new content and fewer live sport telecasts on traditional television—streaming viewership has exceeded cable tv usage for the first time in the US.

Streaming services bit off the largest chunk of the viewership pie at 34.8% in July, up 22.6% from a year earlier. Cable consumption was behind at 34.4%, a drop of 8.9% from last year, per a report by data measurement firm Nielson.

“In addition to claiming the largest viewership share during the month, audiences watched an average of 190.9 billion minutes of streamed content per week—easily surpassing the 169.9 billion minutes that audiences watched during the pandemic lockdown period back in April 2020,” the report said.

Topping the viewership charts among streaming platforms was Netflix with an 8% share, boosted largely by about 18 billion viewing minutes of ‘Stranger Things Season 4’, and five billion viewing minutes of movies ‘The Gray Man’ and ‘The Sea Beast’.