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TV Use Plateaus in December as Gaming Eats Into Broadcast, Cable
TV Use Plateaus in December as Gaming Eats Into Broadcast, Cable,Streaming platforms gathered the largest share of TV viewers' time in December 2022, the sixth straight month they've managed that feat.

TV Use Plateaus in December as Gaming Eats Into Broadcast, Cable

‘The Best Man: The Final Chapters’Peacock

Logo textOverall TV usage inched up in December, but streaming, cable and broadcast platforms all lost a bit of their market share. NBCUniversal’s Peacock service also broke into the inpidual streaming platform rankings.

Nielsen’s monthly Gauge rankings of TV use show December 2022 had a tiny gain over November in the total time spent, growing by 0.3 percent. Most of that growth, however, came in the “other TV use” category and was driven by an increase in gaming on TV screens (the “other” category also includes physical media playback and some on demand viewing). The uptick in video game play brought other TV use to 6.3 percent of all time spent, up from 4.3 percent in November.

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Streaming was still the platform of choice for a plurality of viewers and contributed 38.1 percent of all viewing time for December. That was off slightly from 38.2 percent a month earlier — which Nielsen attributes to rounding — and ended a nine-month streak in which streaming’s share of all TV use increased.

Peacock accounted for 1 percent of all TV use in December, crossing that threshold and breaking out of the “other streaming services” group for the first time. The NBCU platform’s streaming of Spanish-language World Cup matches, limited series The Best Man: The Final Chapters and library episodes of Yellowstone all contributed to the bump.

Broadcast (24.7 percent) and cable (30.8 percent) each lost a share point in December. The broadcast dip was driven by declines in network drama viewing as shows went on their holiday breaks, while on cable, news viewing fell off by 10 percent. Feature films on cable, however, grew by about 5 percent — thanks in part to a glut of holiday movies on a number of outlets — and accounted for 22 percent of all cable viewing.

YouTube (8.7 percent of all TV use) and Netflix (7.5 percent) retained the top two spots among streaming services, though each lost a tenth of a point compared to November.

Nielsen’s Gauge rankings for December are below.

Platforms

Streaming*: 38.1 percent of TV use
Cable: 30.8 percent
Broadcast: 24.7 percent
Other: 6.3 percent

*Includes linear streaming on MVPD apps and VMVPDs such as Hulu + Live and YouTube TV. Broadcast and cable content viewed through linear streaming apps also credit their respective categories.

Streaming Services

YouTube (including YouTube TV): 8.7 percent
Netflix: 7.5 percent
Hulu (including Hulu +Live): 3.4 percent
Prime Video: 2.7 percent
Disney+: 1.9 percent
HBO Max: 1.4 percent
Peacock: 1 percent
Pluto TV: 0.8 percent
All others: 10.7 percent