NFL Helps Streaming Hold 41% Viewership Share in September

Streaming continued to hold steady with a 41% viewership share in September as the start of the NFL season offset a seasonal month-over-month decline of 2.2%.

Amazon’s Prime Video saw a 12% bump in viewership during the month to a platform best of 3.6%, driven largely by “Thursday Night Football.” The original series “The Rings of Power,” which was the month’s third most watched streaming title with 4.3 billion viewing minutes, also contributed to the service’s increase for the month.

Peacock also saw a boost from the NFL with its exclusive coverage of Green Bay vs. Philadelphia on Sept. 6, which generated 2.6 billion viewing minutes to become the 11th most streamed program during the month. But Peacock’s total viewership share fell from 2.1% in August to 1.4% in September.

Additionally, NFL games accounted for 14 of the top 15 broadcast telecasts in September, with the top three garnering over 3 billion viewing minutes each on NBC, CBS and FOX. Broadcast sports viewing was up nearly 9% compared to August, even after coming off a 44% increase the previous month due to the surge from the Olympics.

Streaming has climbed 11% on a year-over-year basis, and most of the gain has been disproportionately driven by platforms with over 30% year-over-year growth, including Disney+, Peacock and Tubi.

YouTube and Netflix continued to lead streaming with shares of 10.6% and 7.9%, while Prime Video sat in third place. The latter owned September’s best performing streaming title with its original series “The Perfect Couple,” which garnered 5.5 billion viewing minutes.

Disney+ took fourth with a 5.2% bump in viewership for a platform best 2.5%, due partially to making Hulu content available on the platform, as well as a 4.2 billion minute month for “Bluey” — making it the fourth most streamed title for the month overall.

Rounding out the remainder of the list was Hulu with a share of 2.4%, Tubi with a share of 1.7%, The Roku Channel with a 1.6% share but a 42% year over year increase, Max and Paramount+ with respective shares of 1.2% and Pluto TV with a 0.7% share.

Broadcast gained 0.6 points during the month for a total TV usage share of 22.6%. In addition to the boost from the NFL, broadcast dramas grew 11% following seasonal debuts for several scripted series. On the broadcast news side, ABC’s simulcast of the Harris-Trump presidential debate also gave the category a lift as 67.1 million viewers tuned in across all 17 airing networks, and over 45 million viewers watched on one of the nine broadcast networks that aired the debate. 

Meanwhile, cable accounted for 26.1% of overall TV in September, down 0.2 share points from the previous month. The decrease was the partial result of the large volume of sports and news content provided by the Olympics and four-day DNC last month, as the cable sports and news genres were down 17.1% and 4%, respectively. 

The ABC presidential debate provided some support, with coverage netting nearly 22 million viewers across eight airing cable networks, including over 9 million viewers on Fox News Channel. The top cable telecast in September, however, went to the NFL Monday Night Football matchup between the Atlanta Falcons and Philadelphia Eagles on ESPN with over 13 million viewers.