Streamed media hit six-month high in viewership in February: Report

More viewers turned to streamers for news, sports and entertainment in February than any month since late last summer, according to a new report.

Nielsen’s monthly “The Gauge” report found 37 percent of all TV viewership was taken by streaming platforms, compared to 27 percent on cable and 23 percent on broadcast.

The 37 percent audience chunk was the largest share streamers have taken since August 2023, Nielsen said, noting it was also 3.4 share points better than streamers won in February of last year.

Last month’s Super Bowl was the most-watched event across all of broadcast and streaming, netting what Nielsen estimated to be a whopping 30 billion viewing minutes across all platforms — 5 billion more than last year’s game.

Across cable, news viewing increased 7 percent as audiences tuned in to election year coverage, the study found.

Of all the major streamers, YouTube took the largest share of the audience in February, earning 9.3 percent of total viewership, besting Netflix, which took 7.8 percent while Hulu and Prime took just less than 3 percent, respectively.

Nielsen’s study is the latest window into changing viewer habits as more Americans ditch traditional TV and turn to streaming options for news, sports and entertainment. Most of the world’s biggest legacy media companies have poured millions into streaming offerings, with many eyeing direct-to-consumer models as a way of adapting to declines in linear viewership in recent months.