Time spent watching television hit a nine-month high in November, as viewing levels for the month grew 5% compared to October for the largest monthly total since February, according to Nielsen’s latest Gauge report.
The increase was attributed to sports, the presidential election and live streaming, all of which drove peak shares of TV for viewing categories each in separate weeks during the month. The typical Thanksgiving holiday surge in TV viewing will be included in the measurement firm’s December report.
Streaming viewership grew 7.6% in November, with the category posting a record share of 41.6%. Nielsen attributed the increase to viewers seeking solace from the atypical, election-fueled news cycle covered by many traditional TV networks, as well as streaming reaching 42.6% of TV viewing during the third week of the interval ending Nov. 24.
YouTube continued to reign as the streamer with the largest individual share of TV viewing, reaching a new record of 10.8%.
Netflix followed behind with a 7.7% share. The service hit peak viewership of 8.5% of TV in the third week of the interval, coinciding with the livestream of the Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson boxing match. It was also fueled by viewing of “The Lincoln Lawyer,” which was the most-watched streaming program with 3.9 billion viewing minutes.
Other services that notched platform-best shares of TV in November included The Roku Channel, which grew 12% to a 1.9% share, Prime Video, which grew 10% to a 3.7% share and Peacock, which finished the month with a 1.5% share and posted the largest monthly increase for a streamer, partially driven by “Despicable Me 4,” which generated 1.5 billion viewing minutes and a 58% increase in kids viewing on the platform.
Meanwhile, Hulu, Disney+, Tubi, Paramount+, Max and Pluto finished the month with shares of 2.7%, 1.9%, 1.8%, 1.3%, 1.1% and 0.9%, respectively.
Broadcast viewing in November grew 3%, with the category accounting for 23.7% of time spent. Viewership was driven by Games 3, 4 and 5 of the MLB World Series on Fox, in addition to the usual slate of NFL and college football games.
The final three World Series games totaled over 10 billion viewing minutes combined, and the Dodgers’ victory over the Yankees in the Game 5 conclusion drew 18.2 million viewers to make it the sixth most watched broadcast telecast during the interval. This more concentrated week of broadcast sporting events lifted the category to a peak share of 24.9% of TV in the first week of the month, and helped increase broadcast sports viewing by 34% over October.
Meanwhile, cable finished the month with a 25% share of viewing. Its share during the week of the election jumped to 26.5%, with much of the increased attributable to cable news. Cable news viewing was up 1% on a monthly basis, but climbed from 36 billion viewing minutes to 48 billion viewing minutes between weeks one and two (+32%) to give it the boost in share.
