By Melissa Kasule
The total usage of TV declined by 5.1 per cent in February, following a fall in viewership across broadcast, cable and streaming during the month.
According to Nielsen’s monthly total TV and streaming snapshot The Gauge, the decline in February is in line with seasonal and historical norms.
Despite streaming platforms being favoured by viewers, streaming viewing levels were down 0.9% from January—the smallest decline across categories. However, streaming gained 1.5 share points to account for 34.3 per cent of TV usage.
In the streaming category, Tubi TV achieved a 1 per cent share of TV usage, it joins Pluto TV as the second FAST platform to be broken out from the other streaming category. Viewing on YouTube was up by 2.5 per cent reaching 7.9 per cent share of TV usage, with Netflix closely followed behind at 7.3 per cent.
Hulu reached a 3.3 per cent and Amazon Prime Video produced a 3 per cent share of TV usage. Meanwhile, streaming levels were low on on HBO Max, Disney and Peacock failing to reach more than 2 per cent share.
On top of this, usage across broadcast and cable was down 9.2 per cent and 5.7 per cent, respectively. Sports viewing on broadcast was down 64.7 per cent, with only the Super Bowl to rely on after the NFL playoffs concluded in January.
