Erik Gruenwedel
Streaming video consumption across household televisions broke records in January, bolstered by an abundance of high-volume content streaming days, NFL playoffs, colder temperatures, and the long-awaited return of scripted broadcast programs, according to Nielsen’s January 2024 report of The Gauge.
January produced nine of the 10 biggest daily streaming levels ever, with Jan. 13 marking the most-streamed day in television history, totaling 40.8 billion minutes streamed—a feat driven by Peacock’s coverage of the first exclusively streamed NFL playoff game.
January streaming usage was up 4.1% over December to account for 36% of overall household TV usage. Peacock led platforms from a growth perspective with a 29% monthly increase, pushing its market share to a platform-best 1.6% of all TV use. YouTube notched its 12th consecutive month having the largest market share among streaming services, with 8.6% of TV usage.
From a content perspective, streaming original titles appeared to show signs of revival in January following a dominant year for acquired content in 2023. Netflix’s “Fool Me Once” was the first original to top the streaming charts since May 2023, totaling 6.5 billion viewing minutes across the month, and “Reacher” on Prime Video held the No. 4 spot with 4.3 billion minutes.
Separately, TV broadcast viewing increased 7.1% in January, which bumped its market share to 24.2% of total TV viewing. Sports viewing had the greatest impact on the category, notching 36% monthly viewing increase to account for 28% of all broadcast viewing. Broadcast drama viewing was up over 20% following some of the first new content releases of the season, led by new episodes across NBC’s “Chicago” franchise.
Cable-based pay-TV viewing increased 2.7% over December, but fell to 27.9% of TV due to the larger increase of overall TV usage. ESPN’s broadcast of the College Football Playoff game between Michigan and Alabama led all cable programs this month, followed by six more NFL and college football games. News viewing was up 8% and topped all cable genres this month, led by the Iowa Town Hall on Fox News Channel (No. 8 cable program in January, excluding sports commentary).
Linear (live TV) streaming via multichannel video programming distributors (MVPD) and online TV apps represented 6.2% of total television usage in January. Linear streaming is included in the appropriate broadcast or cable TV category, and is not included in the standalone streaming TV category.