July TV landscape: Streaming soars

Streaming surged to new heights in July, capturing a record-breaking 41.4% of total TV viewing, according to Nielsen’s The Gauge™. This marked the second consecutive month of streaming dominance and a significant increase from June’s already impressive performance.

Despite only three days of coverage included in the July Gauge report, the early days of the Summer Olympics in Paris had an impact on TV viewing. Total TV usage was up 2.3% in July compared to the previous month, and up 3.5% compared to July 2023.  

Riding the momentum of the Olympics and the hit reality show “Love Island USA,” NBCU-owned streaming service, Peacock, experienced a 33% jump in monthly usage, securing 1.5% of TV viewership. Other streaming platforms also saw growth, with Amazon Prime Video (+12%) and The Roku Channel (+10%) reporting double-digit increases.

YouTube made history as the first streaming platform to surpass 10% of total TV usage in July. Second-place Netflix remained steady, with an 8.4% share from June.

House of the Dragon dominated streaming in July, racking up 4.7 billion viewing minutes on Max and boosting the platform’s share of TV by over 4% to 1.4%. Disney+ followed closely with Bluey at 4.3 billion minutes, driving a 9.2% usage increase and a record 2.1% share of TV. Prime Video’s The Boys claimed the third spot with 4.2 billion viewing minutes.

Cable viewing remained relatively stable but lost ground to the overall growth of TV usage, ending the month with 26.7% of the market. Cable news, fueled by the Republican National Convention and coverage of the attempted assassination of former President Trump, experienced a substantial surge of 23% compared to June.

(Nielsen’s Total TV “Snapshot” measures total day viewing for persons two years of age and up, calculating Nielsen’s national TV panel plus streaming video ratings.)