There was an increase in television viewing in the United States in October, up by 2.8% compared to a year before, driven by a rise of almost 10% in viewing of broadcast channels and sports since September. Online viewing also grew to contribute 37.3% of all television viewing, according to Nielsen data.
However, viewing of broadcast channels fell by 6.2% compared to a year before, with their share of all television viewing down 2.5% to 26.0%.
The share of viewing of cable channels fell by 0.7% in October, having declined every month since March, losing 4.1% of its share in a year.
Online viewing continued to grow, showing a 3.3% monthly increase in viewing, representing 37.3% of all television viewing. Online viewing in October was up by 35.1% compared to the same month the previous year. Its share of viewing is up 8.9% to 37.3%.
Viewing of Disney+ increased by 7% compared to September. Hulu was up by 5% and YouTube was up by 8%, benefitting from increased broadcast viewing in their multichannel video services.
Viewing of linear channels on multichannel apps represented 5.7% of total television usage and 15.4% of online video usage in October. Nielsen attributes viewing of broadcast or cable channels through these apps to their respective category. Nielsen now also includes viewing of programmes within seven days on these services to account for time-shifted viewing. Online live viewing was previously reported.
YouTube, including YouTube TV, accounted for 8.5% of television viewing in October 2022, up by over 50% from 5.8% the same month the previous year.
Netflix viewing was 7.2% of all television viewing, up from 6.8% the previous year.
Hulu was 4.0% of all viewing compared to 3.2%, while Disney+ was 2.0%, up from 1.4%. HBO Max took 1.1% of viewing and Pluto took 0.9%.
The Gauge from Nielsen tracks the share of television viewing including online video channels.