Broadcast channels continued to gain viewing in the United States in October, but so did online services. NFL viewing drove a rise in both as viewing increased seasonally. Online video services accounted for 45.7% of all television viewing, led by YouTube with 12.9%.
Broadcast channels saw a 4.3% monthly viewing gain in October, increasing their share slightly to 22.9% of all television viewing, the largest share for almost a year, as reported by Nielsen.
Sport accounted for nearly a third of all viewing of broadcast channels. NFL games on CBS, FOX and NBC claimed the top three overall program rankings with over 20 million viewers each. On Sundays, broadcast channels claimed a 27.3% share of all television viewing.
The new television season continued to see viewing of broadcast drama up too.
Viewing of subscription channels, which Nielsen calls cable, was down to a low of 22.2%, from 26.3% a year ago, when it benefited from election coverage. News accounts for a quarter of all cable viewing.
However, The Gauge, which shows the share of all television viewing, reveals that viewing of online video services was up 2.4% month on month, outpacing the 1.3% increase in overall television usage, again driven by American football viewing across key online services.
Peacock, the online service from NBCUniversal, saw a 19% rise in viewing, representing 1.6% of all television viewing.
Amazon Prime Video, the home of NFL Thursday Night Football, with 3.8% of all television viewing, rose to 6.4% on Thursdays.
Netflix dropped to 8.0% of all television viewing, the third consecutive monthly decline, drown from 8.8% in July.
YouTube accounted for 12.9% of all television viewing in the United States in October, compared to 10.6% a year before, but down from its high of 13.4% in July.
Online video services represented 45.7% of all television viewing in the United States in October. That is down on the 47.3% high in July, but still more than broadcast and subscription television channels combined.