Sports Still Loom Large, And Streaming Content Drives Viewing Growth

In July, broadcast recaptured television viewers, growing a percentage point thanks to high-profile sporting events coupled with the opening weekend of the Olympics. This shift in viewing meant that cable gave up some ground while streaming also picked up a share point. This is potentially a precursor to August viewership behavior, which will reflect the full duration of the Olympics. At 28% share, streaming benefitted from the continued momentum of the growing stable of streaming services and a healthy influx of new content to the more established services. While it may be too early to call it a trend, streaming has gained 1% with each interval of The Gauge since its release.

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“Behind the scenes, sports also likely impacted streaming’s share. This includes many of the Olympics highlights clips, which were posted on YouTube, where we saw some minutes increase. We’ll stay tuned for next month when we’ll have the full impact of the Games to review,” said Brian Fuhrer, SVP, Product Strategy at Nielsen.

Watch the video to hear Brian discuss how sports played an outsized impact on July’s share of television viewership, building from last month’s conclusion of the broadcast season, to the NBA Playoffs on to the Olympics.