For the first time, broadcast and cable viewing hours fell below 50% of all viewing in July while streaming TV set a new record high.
Streaming TV services are celebrating a victory of sorts for the month of July. Nielsen, the company that measures television viewership, says the amount of TV usage spent on streaming channels hit a new peak.
Broadcast and cable usage in July dropped just below the 50% mark of all TV viewing hours. Streaming accounted for almost 40%, according to new numbers released by Nielsen.
3 streamers hit new individual records
The report also showed that YouTube, Netflix and Amazon Prime each set individual record months. YouTube accounted for 9.2% of usage in July alone. Netflix followed at 8.5% and Amazon Prime’s total was 3.4%.
I subscribe to Netflix, which I’m leaning toward dropping if they don’t find more shows I like. Most of what I used to watch there has moved to other services, particularly Paramount+. I subscribe to Amazon Prime, which has a decent mix of options.
As for YouTube, I watch videos on a free account. I haven’t been able to justify paying what YouTube’s subscription packages cost.
Suits (Netflix, Peacock) and Bluey (Disney+) were July’s most-watched streaming programs while broadcast’s most-watched were ABC World News Tonight and the MLB All Star Game on Fox.
I didn’t watch any of those.
Streaming TV or broadcast/cable: Blurred lines
The report I linked doesn’t detail how many hours of streaming TV viewership were actually of broadcast (linear) channels.
I cut the cord on cable TV nearly three years ago. Honestly, I don’t miss it at all.
But while I’m exclusively streaming, at least some of what I’m streaming is still broadcast and cable.
That’s because I subscribe to a service called Philo, which gives me about 70 traditional cable channels for about $25 per month. It’s a lot cheaper than traditional cable because there are no sports channels. (That’s fine with me.)
But some of my favorite cable channels that I stream on Philo are TV Land, MeTV, Investigation Discovery, AMC, Catchy TV (formerly Decades), Heroes & Icons and FETV. Philo, like some cable services (if you pay extra) allow you to DVR those channels. But Philo doesn’t charge extra for that.
More than half of my streaming TV time is watching from those channels, along with watching Paramount+ for local broadcast TV and a few other shows that service carries.
So, no, I’m not watching broadcast channels over the air or traditional cable channels via a cable line. But I’m watching broadcast and cable television through streaming TV.
I guess I get counted in the streaming category even though it’s linear broadcast and linear cable that I seem to watch the most of even when I’m streaming.
For obvious reasons, I don’t want broadcast or cable to go away. For me, it’s just the fact that streaming gives more options for considerably less than cable offers. That’s the number one reason I cut the cable cord.
Even though I’m still enjoying cable networks, I don’t miss cable television one bit.
