The Gauge report from Nielsen shows that online video accounted for 42.6% of total television viewing in the United States in January. That was down from a high of 43.3% in December. Overall television viewing was up by 5%, boosted by sports and news coverage. Total online viewing minutes on television were actually up by 3% on the previous month and by over a fifth compared to the previous January, when online had 36% of viewing.
Sport was as big draw in January, with football games across the NFL and NCAA drawing big audiences and contributing to small increases for broadcast and pay-television.
The exclusive coverage on Amazon Prime of the NFL game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens on 11 January also saw the second-highest day of online viewing, with 47 billion minutes, just behind the 51.2 billion minutes set on Christmas Day. That was before we even get to the Super Bowl.
YouTube accounted for 10.8% of total television viewing. That was down slightly on its record of 11.1% in December.
Netflix had a record 8.6% of television viewing, helped by the return of Squid Game, which generated 9 billion minutes of viewing.
Nielsen now consolidates Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ under a single share of viewing, which was 4.7% in January, with Bluey being the second most-viewed programme online that month with 4.7 billion minutes accumulated on Disney+.
Amazon Prime Video had a 3.7% share of television viewing, down from 4.0% the previous month.
Roku followed, with a 2.1% share of viewing for the Roku Channel, ahead of Tubi, Peacock, Paramount+, Max, and Pluto TV.
The third most popular programme online in January was Landmanon Paramount+, with 4.4 billion minutes.
It is worth noting that while the broadcast channels declined to 22.5% of all television viewing from 24.2% a year earlier, that is still more than Netflix, Disney, and Amazon combined. And the media groups that include the traditional broadcast networks ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox have over 35% of all viewing across their properties and platforms.