Online video continues to grow its share of television viewing in the United States. The latest Gauge report from Nielsen shows that it accounted for 36.4% of television viewing among all individuals in May 2023. That is the highest proportion so far. Of that, Netflix increased its share to 7.9%, while YouTube accounted for 8.5%. The Roku Channel broke through the 1% mark, with a share comparable to Peacock and above that for Pluto TV.
Nielsen continues to make changes to its methodology, which makes direct comparisons difficult. It says that about half of the 2.5% increase in viewing share for online video reflected viewing behaviour, with the remainder reattributed from the unidentified viewing category.
The Roku channel is broken out for the first time, with 1.1% of total television usage. The services — Pluto TV, Tubi TV, and the Roku Channel — now have usage comparable to Peacock and HBO Max, and between them they account for more viewership than Amazon Prime Video.
Netflix grew to 7.9% of viewing, benefitting from a change in measurement that credits the viewing of its original productions via cable set-top boxes to the streaming category.
YouTube increased to 8.5% of viewing on television, and that does not include the YouTube TV channels service.
More significantly, Disney+, HBO Max, and Peacock, the owners of which have made major bets on online video, apparently have less than half the viewing share of YouTube between them, and they are not growing their share of viewing.
Disney+ remains at 1.8% of viewing, largely unchanged in recent months and slightly down on the end of the previous year.
The share of broadcast television channel viewing fell to its lowest so far, at 23.1%, although broadcast and subscription television channels still accounted for 54.6% of total television viewing. Still, it is getting dangerously close to the point where traditional television makes up less than half of all viewing.