Streaming services captured the largest share of television viewing for the first time ever in July, according to data released Thursday from Nielsen, the television ratings authority. Of all the TV watching time in July, 34.8% happened over streaming while 34.4% happened over cable. Broadcast TV captured a 21.6% share of the total.
Nielsen noted that streaming has surpassed broadcast before, but July marks the first time it’s also exceeded cable viewing. Cable television’s share of viewing fell about 9% from July 2021, while streaming’s share increased by nearly 23% year over year, according to the report.
Netflix captured 8% of all viewing in July 2022, thanks in part to people watching nearly 18 billion minutes of hit series Stranger Things, according to the Nielsen data. Several other streaming services — including Amazon Prime, YouTube and Hulu — captured their largest ever share of viewing time in July.
It’s a time of change and increasing competition among streamers. Both Disney Plus and Netflix will be rolling out new ad-supported tiers in the coming months. Netflix had its largest drop in subscribers ever recently and is looking for ways to limit password sharing after raising prices at the beginning of 2022. Disney Plus, ESPN Plus and Hulu (all majority owned by Disney) will all see price increases in the near future, too. HBO Max and Discovery Plus will merge starting in 2023 after their their parent companies did so earlier this year.
