Broadcasting reached an all-time weekly high in December, according to The Gauge – Nielsen
From an overall viewing perspective, broadcasting was the obvious outsider during Christmas week, with Americans watching a total of 183 billion minutes – an all-time high – across the growing range of top platforms. Viewing was enough to surpass the 160 million minutes of broadcast watched in March 2020 when the US started watching fewer TV shows. The increase in live stream viewing gave viewers 33% of total TV viewing during the week ending December 31, the highest according to SME.
From a reporting point of view, this month’s edition of The Gauge expands the accuracy of the data we provide. We’ve increased the view count to show an extra decimal instead of rounding. This data will allow you to view the differences between month and month in the post view. In December, streaming viewing dropped one share point, and the “other” category, which includes video-on-demand content, cable receiver streaming, gaming, and DVD use, gained a 1.6% share of video game power, during what could be considered “Season One” is in that category. Overall, the flow was steady at 28%.
Let me take you into the details of our methodology.
You can see Brian Fuhrer (Senior Vice President of Product Strategy, SME) giving a behind-the-scenes look at some of the show’s tweaks on The Gauge.
Methodology and FAQ
Monthly aggregate analysis by consumer reach metric across major TV platforms including broadcast and streaming. This chart includes information about the best streaming providers. This graph shows the share of individual broadcast distributors from each category as well as the total TV usage.
Meter data is generated from two separate panels. SME streaming data is derived from a subset of television families that support flow meters within the national television panel. Line TV sources (broadcast and cable), as well as total usage are dependent on viewing from SME’s extensive TV panel.
The data is based on a particular viewing period. The data, representing a month for 5 weeks, includes a mix of Live+7 for weeks 1 through 4 in the data period. Note: Live+7 also includes watching and watching live TV for up to seven additional days. You can watch up to 3 days after the broadcast, Live +3 is to watch TV.
Within the meter, “Other” includes all other televisions. Includes any tuning other than that shown, unmetered sources, cable box streaming, games, or other devices (DVD playback). Since broadcasts via decoders are not credited with the respective broadcast distributors, they are included in the “other” category. SME will continue to work towards awarding individual broadcast distributors credits via decoders as we improve our Streaming Meter technology.
Streaming platforms listed as “other broadcasts” include any high-bandwidth video stream on television that has not been individually segmented.
Hulu Live Show is included in Hulu, Youtube Show includes Youtube TV.
Encoded live TV (or encoded linear stream) is available on both broadcast and cable packages. Hulu TV, Youtube TV and other MVPD / vMVPD streaming applications. MVPD is a multi-channel video programming distributor. This service provides several TV channels. Distributors who aggregate television programming from multiple networks are known as vMVPDs. They offer a subscription that allows independent access to the content.