Streaming hits all-time weekly high in December, according to The Gauge – Nielsen

From a total viewing perspective, streaming was the clear outlier during the week of Christmas, as Americans watched a total of 183 billion minutes – an all-time high –  across the growing range of over-the-top platforms. It was enough viewing to surpass the 160 million minutes of streaming that were viewed in March 2020 when the U.S. began watching less TV. The increase in streaming viewing gave streamers 33% viewing of total TV viewing over the week ending December 31, which was the highest as per SME.

From a reporting standpoint, this month’s edition of The Gauge expands the granularity of the data we provide. We have increased viewing share calculation to show an additional decimal instead of rounding. This data will allow you to view month-tomonth variations in viewing share. In December, broadcast viewing dropped one share point and the “other” category, which includes video on-demand content, cable set top box streaming, gaming, and DVD usage, gained 1.6% share on the strength of video gaming, during what could be considered the “premiere season” in that category.  Overall, streaming was steady at 28%.

Let me take you to the details of our methodology.

You can see Brian Fuhrer (SVP Product Strategy, SME) giving a behind-the scenes view of some of The Gauge’s viewing adjustments.

METHODOLOGY and FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Monthly macroanalysis by The Gauge of consumer access across major television platforms including Broadcast and Streaming. This chart includes information about the top streaming providers. This chart shows individual streaming distributors’ share of each category as well as total TV usage.

SME Paid Under

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