Children heading back to the classroom pushed pause on the continued growth of streaming in late summer

Nielsen announced that The Gauge, its monthly total TV and streaming snapshot, unveiled that in August 2021, streaming maintained a 28% share of total TV viewing, compared with broadcast TV (24%) and cable (38%).

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The August data shows that after three months of steady growth, the share of streaming detailed in The Gauge remained static.

Two influencing factors counterbalanced, underpinning this month-over-month consistency in share over the platforms. First, children 6 to 17 years old, who headed from their flat screens to the blackboards, viewed about 7.5% less. The declines predominantly affected younger-skewing platforms, with more adult-oriented platforms actually seeing month-over-month gains.

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Offsetting this viewing shift among children was a 0.5% increase in overall TV viewing. This was buoyed by adults tuning in to broadcast programming, such as the Olympics, which drove a 2.9% viewing increase in this category.

Tracking the trajectory of streaming consumption—and viewing it alongside other TV usage—has become a crucial source of information for the industry as content creators, media companies, streaming platforms, advertisers, industry groups, talent agencies and the talent themselves all seek clarity around the various video content that consumers engage with.

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