Cable Viewership Hits Record Low With Viewers Turning to Streamers at Record Levels

“Broadcast TV and cable have some serious competition in 2023”

A silhouette of a mobile user next to a screen projection of Youtube logo on March 28, 2018. Dado Ruvic/Illustration/Reuters

For the first time, cable television viewership has dropped below 30 percent, signaling to Hollywood that viewers are no longer willing to pay a hefty sum every month for a package of entertainment channels, many of which they never watch.

According to a new report by audience, data, and analytics company Nielsen, broadcast and cable TV dropped to a new low in the United States last month in terms of total share among American viewers, with it falling below 50 percent of total TV usage (which includes satellite providers like DirecTV).

Viewers Choose Streaming Services

It was streaming services like Netflix and YouTube that accounted for a record 38.7 percent of total U.S. TV usage in July, the category’s largest share reported in Nielsen’s The Gauge monthly report to date. In general, overall TV usage increased 0.2 percent from June while usage among audiences under 18 was up 4 percent. The latter numbers are attributed to children being settled into their summer breaks. Viewing among adults 18 and older fell 0.3 percent.