Seasonality plays a role in an overall television usage decline of 3% during the month
Following seasonal viewing trends that typically begin in February, overall television usage in the U.S. dipped again in March. Despite declines across categories, cable and streaming saw their share of TV viewing increase in this month’s report of The GaugeTM as a result of smaller declines in viewing in these categories compared with the overall decline of 3% on a monthly basis. While these changes follow similar month-over-month trends from last year, they also point at larger shifts happening to Americans’ media habits.
The growing influence of women’s sports
Similar to March 2023, the NCAA “March Madness” tournament helped cable viewing hold steady and gain 0.7 share point, as the category saw a 43% bump in sports viewing, to finish the month with 28.3% of TV. However, unlike last year, which was driven almost exclusively by the men’s division, the NCAA women’s games charged onto TV screens this March.
In fact, the NCAA Women’s Basketball matchup between the Iowa Hawkeyes and the West Virginia Mountaineers on March 25 on ESPN was among the top 10 cable telecasts for the month (seventh overall). The comparable game last year barely made it into the top 100 among cable telecasts. And this didn’t include the Elite Eight, Final Four and Championship games, which took place in April.
The appeal of the tournament among sports fans highlights the impact that high-demand content has on viewership, regardless of platform or channel, and also highlights a larger trend we’re seeing in the rise of women’s sports.
Seasonality or changing media habits?
Beyond March Madness, TV’s February-to-March changes in 2024 are almost identical to the transition we saw last year, reflecting seasonality in viewing as a result of annual changes in weather, vacations, holidays etc. However, we can see evidence of larger transformations affecting the industry as we look deeper into the data.
Following seasonal trends similar to the past few years, broadcast viewing fell 6% in March to finish with a 22.5% share of television. To add some perspective, when Nielsen released the first edition of the GaugeTM in May 2021, the broadcast category accounted for 25% of television viewing, and despite the continued declines, the category has been fairly resilient, with a less sharp drop than some might have expected.
Comparatively, streaming viewing declined just 1% versus last month but gained 0.8 share points to finish with 38.5% of television viewing in March. No category has seen a more dramatic shift than streaming on an annual basis, as it’s gained 12% versus a year ago and added 4.4 share points. Some of that shift has come from FAST channel providers (PlutoTV, The Roku Channel and TubiTV), with a considerable portion of the titles being fueled by cable network content.
So while the cable category may be shrinking in terms of its share of television, cable content remains powerful with consumers. In addition to March Madness, the State of The Union address on March 7, which drew 32.2 million viewers in total (14.1 million on cable alone), reminds us that cable remains a news-driven category as six of the top 10 cable telecasts this month were related to the event. As we look toward November, cable will play a significant role in how audiences connect with news media ahead of the 2024 U.S. elections.
March data trends with Brian Fuhrer
Methodology and frequently asked questions
How is ‘The Gauge’ created?
What is included in “other”?
What is included in “other streaming”?
Where does linear streaming contribute?
What about live streaming on Hulu and YouTube?
