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The ratings service also notes that TV use in January was at its highest in almost four years.
By Rick Porter
Television Writer
The first streaming-exclusive NFL playoff game helped drive the biggest day on streaming platforms that Nielsen has ever measured.
The ratings provider’s monthly profile of TV use for January shows a 3.7 percent uptick in January compared to December, and total time spent watching TV was the highest in four years, excluding the pandemic lockdown months of March and April 2020. Streaming platforms (36 percent of all TV use) and broadcast networks (24.2 percent) both increased their share of viewing from December. Cable TV viewing also rose some in January, but not as much as overall TV use, so its share fell by three tenths of a point to 27.9 percent. Other TV usage, including gaming and physical media playback, accounted for the rest.
January also featured nine of the 10 highest volume days on streaming since Nielsen began tracking that metric, with Jan. 13 topping the list at 40.78 billion minutes of viewing. Colder than usual weather across much of the country, which meant people spending more time indoors, partly drove the streaming boomlet — but so did events like the NFL wild card game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins on Peacock, which was the first playoff game ever exclusive to a streamer. The Jan. 13 game, which averaged close to 23 million viewers, accounted for 3.9 billion minutes of watch time (including over-the-air broadcasts in the teams’ local markets) — almost 10 percent of all streaming viewing that day.
The NFL game also drove Peacock to its largest share of viewing for a month in the Gauge rankings. The NBCUniversal streamer had 1.6 percent of all TV use for the month. YouTube (8.6 percent) and Netflix (7.9 percent) remained the top individual streaming platforms.
Sports, and specifically the end of the NFL regular season and early playoff rounds, accounted for 28 percent of all broadcast viewing in January. The post-strikes return of a handful of scripted series also drove broadcast drama viewing to a 20 percent increase compared to December. Even with those month-to-month gains, however, overall broadcast viewing was off by 20 percent compared to January 2023, when networks had a full slate of original programming.
Netflix’s Fool Me Once, which premiered New Year’s Day, was the top streaming title in January with 6.5 billion minutes of viewing. Reacher amassed 4.3 billion minutes of watch time as it continued its second season on Prime Video.
Nielsen’s Gauge rankings for January 2024 are below.
Platforms
Streaming: 36 percent of all TV use
Cable: 27.9 percent
Broadcast: 24.2 percent
Other: 11.8 percent
Streaming Services
YouTube: 8.5 percent of all TV use
Netflix: 7.9 percent
Prime Video: 2.8 percent
Hulu: 2.7 percent
Disney+: 1.9 percent
Peacock: 1.6 percent
Tubi: 1.5 percent
Max: 1.3 percent
Roku Channel: 1.1 percent
Paramount+: 0.9 percent
Pluto TV: 0.7 percent
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