Nielsen: Prime Video viewing up, Disney+ down in Jan
February 17, 2023
Nielsen’s January 2023 TV usage summary from The Gauge, the media measurement company’s monthly snapshot of total TV and streaming consumption in the US, revealed that January was defined by heavy TV usage, most notably of sports and broadcast content, and overall viewing was up 1.3 per cent compared to December 2022.
Despite the monthly increase of overall TV usage, only the broadcast category gained in share compared to December, finishing the month at 24.9 per cent of total TV usage. Broadcast content viewing rose 2.1 per cent in January, led by a 55 per cent jump in sports viewing, and a nearly 30 per cent increase in viewing to the drama genre, accounting for 25.3 per cent and 23.4 per cent of broadcast content consumption, respectively. Broadcast sports programming was dominated by the NFL playoffs, which made up the top 10 telecasts for the category in January. On a yearly basis, broadcast content viewing was down 6 per cent compared with January 2022.
Viewing to streaming content increased 1.2 per cent compared to December, and the streaming category represented 38.1 per cent of total TV viewing in January. Time spent watching streaming content was up 31.8 per cent in January compared with the year prior, and the category gained 9.2 share points, climbing from 28.9 per cent to 38.1 per cent of total TV usage.
Across the streamers, Prime Video saw the largest monthly usage increase in January, recording a 9.3 per cent uptick in viewing (+0.2 share pts.) that was driven by its original series, Jack Ryan (pictured), and original movie, Shotgun Wedding. Hulu saw a 2.9 per cent bump in viewing in January, translating to an additional 0.1 share points compared with December. Viewing to Disney+ content declined 9.9 per cent versus last month (-0.2 share pts), due, at least in part, to the post-December drop in holiday movie viewing.
Broadcast and cable content viewing on MVPD (multichannel video programming distributor) and vMVPD (virtual multichannel video programming distributor) streaming apps represented 5.3 per cent of total television usage and 13.9 per cent of streaming usage in January. YouTube TV accounted for 14.9 per cent of YouTube viewing (1.3 share points), and Hulu Live made up 9.1 per cent of Hulu viewing (0.3 share points). Broadcast and cable content viewed through MVPD/vMVPD streaming apps also credits the respective broadcast or cable category.
Cable viewing was fairly flat versus December, dropping 0.3 per cent to end the month with a 30.4 per cent share of TV. Cable sports viewing jumped 22 per cent in January, but viewing to the feature film genre—which had been up in November and December—saw a 19 per cent decline. Cable news viewing experienced another dip (-4 per cent), but remains the most-watched cable genre. On a year-over-year basis, time spent watching cable content declined 14.6 per cent.