Television usage continued a seasonal decline in May — and it also declined year-over-year, while streaming continued to gain share against other uses that also saw drops in time spent.
Overall TV consumption fell for the fourth straight month, down 4.4% from April and down 2.7% year-over-year, according to “The Gauge” from Nielsen, the ratings firm’s monthly overall look at TV delivery platforms.
TV streaming volume rose 2.5% month-over-month, though, and streaming’s share of TV usage rose to a new record 36.4%. (A methodology change gave a small extra boost to the Streaming category, but it would have finished at a record high even without the change.)
Meanwhile, other categories of usage declined again. Cable’s share of TV viewing fell to 31.1% from 31.5% last month, and Broadcast’s share dropped to 22.8% from 23.1%. In absolute terms, cable viewing fell 5.4% and broadcast viewing dropped 5.5%.
Broadcast took a hit from a 25% drop in sports viewing, while sports viewing on cable rose 12%, thanks to heavy coverage of the NBA Finals on ESPN (DIS) and Turner networks (WBD).
And “Other” usage — heavily videogaming, but also including such uses as viewing video discs — dipped to a 9.7% from 11.5% share (though a part of that drop was tied to the streaming methodology change).
Turning to the individual streaming platforms, big names built some momentum in May, with a little help from some streaming originals linked back to their originators in the new methodology. YouTube (GOOG) (GOOGL) remained the top individual streamer in Nielsen’s numbers, building its share of TV usage to 8.5% from last month’s 8.1%. And Netflix (NFLX) was still No. 2, building its share to 7.9% from 6.9%.
Hulu’s (DIS) (CMCSA) share rose to 3.7% from 3.3%, while Amazon Prime Video (AMZN) rose to 3.1% from 2.8%. Disney+ (DIS), for its part, held steady at 1.8%.
Meanwhile, the steady growth off a small base for free ad-supported television (FAST) continues — and it’s now competing for share with smaller subscription video services. Tubi (FOX) (FOXA) grew its share to 1.3% from 1.1%, and in the move passed up Max (WBD), at 1.2%, and Peacock (CMCSA), at 1.1%. And FAST entry The Roku Channel (ROKU) debuted in Nielsen’s streamer count with a 1.1% share, just beyond the share of FAST brother Pluto TV (PARA) (PARAA) at 0.9%.
“Other” streamers (including smaller services like Crackle (CSSE) as well as linear streamers like Spectrum (CHTR), DirecTV (T) and Sling TV (DISH)) fell to a combined 5.8% from 6.9%.
Pay TV distributors: Comcast (CMCSA), Charter (CHTR), Dish Network (DISH), Verizon FiOS (VZ), Optimum/Suddenlink (ATUS), Atlantic Broadband (OTCPK:CGEAF), Sparklight (CABO).
Relevant local broadcast tickers: Nexstar Media Group (NXST), Sinclair Broadcast Group (SBGI), Gray Television (GTN), Tegna (TGNA), E.W. Scripps (SSP). National broadcasters: ABC (DIS), NBC (CMCSA), CBS (PARA) (PARAA), Fox (FOX) (FOXA). And some ad-tech names tied to connected TV: The Trade Desk (TTD), Magnite (MGNI), PubMatic (PUBM), Criteo (CRTO), Roku (ROKU).
