ROKU - Streaming jumps to capture a third of television viewing

Streaming video surged to still another record share of television usage in the past month, maintaining a trend where it's set to soon become the top use of consumers' TV time.

Streaming usage took more than a third of TV usage in June, its latest record share according to " The Gauge " from Nielsen, the ratings giant's monthly macro look at TV delivery platforms. Streaming captured 33.7% of total TV consumption, and other formats hit their smallest shares yet: Cable fell, but still leads at 35.1%, and broadcast dipped to 22.4%. The share of "Other" usage (heavily videogaming) bounced back to 8.8% share of TV time.

Total time spent watching TV, in decline for a few months, rebounded by rising 2% in May, mainly led by an 8% increase in streaming volume in that time frame (and streaming time spent jumped 23.5% when compared to the same month a year ago).

Broadcast viewing unsurprisingly took a hit from the traditional end of the television season, with time spent down 6.7%. But cable is the category showing the largest year-over-year shifts, Nielsen notes, falling 5 percentage points in share and nearly 12% in viewing vs. June 2021.

That surge in streaming share lifted all the key streaming players in viewing time, and four of them hit record-high shares of viewing for the month: Netflix ( NASDAQ: NFLX ), YouTube and YouTube TV ( NASDAQ: GOOG ) ( GOOGL ), Amazon Prime Video ( NASDAQ: AMZN ) and Disney+ ( NYSE: DIS ).

As for streaming's 33.7% piece of the pie, Netflix ( NFLX ) led with nearly a full percentage point jump, to 7.7%; YouTube and YouTube TV ( GOOG ) ( GOOGL ) rose to 6.9% from 6.7%; Hulu ( DIS ) ( CMCSA ) dipped to 3.3% share from May's 3.4%; Prime Video ( AMZN ) rose to 2.9% from last month's 2.6%; Disney+ ( DIS ) rose to 2.0% share from the prior month's 1.7%; and HBO Max ( WBD ) held steady at 1% share.

Turning to weekly streaming ratings, Netflix's ( NFLX ) Stranger Things gave up its hold on the top spot, only to be supplanted by another popular show on the streamer, and Disney ( DIS ) made its latest Marvel splash. Stranger Things ( NFLX ) fell to No. 2 with a still-hefty 2.326B minutes streamed, topped only by The Umbrella Academy ( NFLX ), which streamed 2.454B minutes in Nielsen's most recent weekly numbers (for June 20-26).

They were followed by the streaming release of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ( DIS ), which had made a splash at the box office just a couple of months ago . It streamed 1.43B minutes in its Disney+ debut, besting a couple of Netflix ( NFLX ) movies on the overall chart: Sing 2 at No. 4 with 1.267B minutes; and The Man from Toronto at No. 5, with 948M minutes.

Rounding out the top 10 on the overall streaming chart: No. 6, Obi-Wan Kenobi ( DIS ), 860M minutes; No. 7, Criminal Minds ( NFLX ), 732M minutes; No. 8, NCIS ( NFLX ), 726M minutes; No. 9, The Boys ( AMZN ), 712M minutes; and No. 10, CoComelon ( NFLX ), 619M minutes.

(Nielsen streaming ratings now incorporate viewing from six major streamers: Amazon Prime Video ( AMZN ), Apple TV+ ( AAPL ), Disney+ ( DIS ), HBO Max ( WBD ), Hulu ( DIS ) ( CMCSA ), and Netflix ( NFLX ).)

Pay TV distributors: Comcast ( CMCSA ), Charter ( CHTR ), Dish Network ( DISH ), Verizon FiOS ( VZ ), Optimum/Suddenlink ( ATUS ), Atlantic Broadband ( OTCPK:CGEAF ), Sparklight ( CABO ).

Relevant local broadcast tickers: Nexstar Media Group ( NXST ), Sinclair Broadcast Group ( SBGI ), Gray Television ( GTN ), Tegna ( TGNA ), E.W. Scripps ( SSP ). National broadcasters: ABC ( DIS ), NBC ( CMCSA ), CBS ( PARA ) ( PARAA ), Fox ( FOX ) ( FOXA ). And some ad-tech names tied to connected TV: The Trade Desk ( TTD ), Magnite ( MGNI ), PubMatic ( PUBM ), Criteo ( CRTO ), Roku ( ROKU ).

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