Total TV Consumption grows 5% as Cable, Broadcast and Streaming Viewing Jumps 20B Minutes Per Week Vs October
Nielsen (NYSE: NLSN) announced that The Gauge, its monthly total TV and streaming snapshot, revealed that in November 2021, time away from daily routines and the Thanksgiving holiday inspired consumers to spend 5% more time with TV each week in the month.
Broadcast television usage lost a share point, dropping to 27% of total usage. While sports viewing was up 7%, a decline in general drama (-12%) and sitcom (-7%) viewing contributed to the decrease. Consumers’ share of TV time for both cable and streaming remained flat at 38% and 28%, respectively.
Notable in this month’s iteration of The Gauge, the “Other” category gained a percentage point to hold 7% of TV time. This 1% growth was driven primarily by students using their time away from school and their studies to spend more time playing video games.
Looking at the streaming platforms themselves, according to data from Nielsen’s Streaming Platform Ratings, the foundation of The Gauge’s streaming insights, Disney+ gained a percentage point to capture 2% of total TV usage, as the platform’s viewership grew nearly 20%. This increase was bolstered by the availability of the platform’s kids audience, and the anticipated releases of Shang-Chi and The Beatles: Get Back documentary. Netflix usage remained steady with a 7% share, while Hulu and Amazon Prime Video collected 3% and 2%, respectively.
Measuring and monitoring consumers’ streaming behavior in a comparable way against linear TV usage is a critical source of information for the industry as content creators, media companies, streaming platforms, advertisers, industry groups, talent agencies and the talent themselves all seek clarity around the various video content that consumers engage with.
About The Gauge
Nielsen’s The Gauge is underpinned by both its TV ratings service as well as Streaming Platform Ratings, the latter provides clients with measurement detailing the amount of time consumers spend streaming and on which platforms. This broad look at platform usage provides complimentary insights to Nielsen Streaming Content Ratings, which details viewing to subscription-based video on demand (SVOD) content at the title, program and episode level. By showcasing both the micro and macro-level data sets, the industry has a full picture of how this media is being consumed, as well as when and by whom. Nielsen’s approach to audience measurement, which leverages a geographically representative panel of real people and big data, is built for the future of media consumption. With The Gauge, the future of TV consumption is visible in a single view. The latest edition of The Gauge is always available at www.nielsen.com/thegauge.
About Nielsen
Nielsen Holdings plc (NYSE: NLSN) is a leading global data and analytics company that provides a holistic and objective understanding of the media industry. With offerings spanning audience measurement, audience outcomes and content, Nielsen offers its clients and partners simple solutions to complex questions and optimizes the value of their investments and growth strategies. It is the only company that can offer de-duplicated cross-media audience measurement. Audience is EverythingTM to Nielsen and its clients, and Nielsen is committed to ensuring that every voice counts.
An S&P 500 company, Nielsen offers measurement and analytics service in more than 55 countries. Learn more at www.nielsen.com or www.nielsen.com/investors and connect with us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.
SOURCE Nielsen