December TV Usage Climbs, Tallies Five Days with Over 100 Billion Viewing Minutes, according to Nielsen’s Report of The Gauge

Television viewing levels in December surpassed November levels by nearly 2%, making December 2023’s second-highest month for TV viewing behind January, according to the latest report of The Gauge™, Nielsen’s monthly snapshot of total broadcast, cable and streaming consumption that occurs via television.

December was a robust month for TV usage. Five days recorded over 100 billion TV viewing minutes, including the second-highest daily total in 2023 occurring on December 31 (behind Super Bowl Sunday on February 12) with over 105 billion minutes. While all but the broadcast category showed monthly increases in usage, the “other* category” was the only to gain in share in December (+1.8 pts.), partly driven by increased video game console usage among younger demographics.

Following four consecutive months of growth (August through November), broadcast viewing decreased 4.3% from November, which brought the category to a 23.5% share of TV usage (-1.5 pts.). Decreased usage was led by viewers 25-34 who watched 13% less broadcast programming versus November. Sports remained the most-watched broadcast genre, accounting for 28.5% of broadcast viewing, with NFL games accounting for 12 of the top 13 broadcast telecasts during the month. ABC’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve took the 13th spot.

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Cable viewing climbed another 1.3% this month, but due to the larger increase of overall TV usage, cable gave up 0.1 share point to finish at 28.2% of total TV usage. Cable sports viewing was up 8.4% versus November, led by both NCAA bowl games and NFL programming. The top telecast went to ESPN’s NFL matchup between the Detroit Lions and the Dallas Cowboys on December 30, which totaled over 11 million viewers. Feature film viewing nearly tripled that of sports, however, accounting for 21.4% of cable usage compared with 8.1% for sports.

Streaming usage increased 1.2% in December, but like cable, it was not enough to maintain its share and the category fell to 35.9% of overall TV usage (-0.2 pt.). The streaming increase was led by 18-24 year-old viewers, whose usage was up 2.7%. Additional streaming platform and content highlights in December include:

• Netflix viewership climbed nearly 6% to account for 7.7% of TV usage (+0.3 pt.).
• Tubi exhibited a 6.6% bump in viewing to maintain 1.4% of TV usage.
• YouTube’s share of TV fell to 8.5% (-0.4 pt.) following a 3.4% drop in usage, but it maintained the top spot among streaming platforms.
• Netflix’s usage increase was partially driven by this month’s top two streaming titles: Young Sheldon (also hosted on Max) was the #1 most-streamed title with 6.7 billion viewing minutes, and Leave the World Behind claimed #2 with 4.5 billion minutes.

Linear (live TV) streaming via MVPD (multichannel video programming distributors) and vMVPD (virtual multichannel video programming distributors) apps represented 6% of total television usage in December. Linear streaming is included in the appropriate broadcast or cable category, and is not included in the streaming category.

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