Streaming unverpackt: Streaming-Zuschauerzahlen gehen im Jahr 2023 in die Bibliothek

Amerikaner haben letztes Jahr Inhalte im Wert von 21 Millionen Jahren gestreamt

The growing bounty of content on streaming services has forever changed TV viewing behavior, with streaming consumption now consistently accounting for the biggest driver of TV usage¹. And while the time we spend with TV is largely flat, our time spent streaming video continues to rise. In 2023, U.S. audiences streamed 21 million years’ worth of video, an incredible 21% increase from the 17 million years worth² they streamed in 2022.

Im Vergleich zu 2022 bedeuteten die Streiks der Drehbuchautoren und Schauspieler in Hollywood jedoch, dass die Zuschauer während eines Großteils des Jahres 2023 deutlich weniger neue Inhalte zum Anschauen hatten. Dies und die Konzentration auf die Monetarisierung von Inhalten in der gesamten Streaming-Landschaft haben dazu beigetragen, neue Strategien für die Verbreitung von Inhalten zu entwickeln, um das Publikum inmitten der Vielzahl neuer Angebote zu binden. Laut Gracenote konnten die Zuschauer Ende letzten Jahres aus 90 verschiedenen Streaming-Diensten wählen, Anfang 2020 waren es noch 51.

The depth of those services—just under 1 million unique titles worth³—proved vital in 2023, with existing library content becoming instrumental as services carefully rationed the stockpiled originals they had in their arsenals. The environment also inspired new perspectives about content licensing, as titles that were once exclusive to individual platforms began appearing on multiple services—a significant pivot from previous years. Band of Brothers und The Pacific, for example, benefited as a result of this approach, appearing on Nielsen’s U.S. top 10 list the week of Sept. 18, 2023, given their availability on both Max and Netflix.

Diving deeper into streaming viewership trends in 2023, there was no clearer beneficiary of this shift than Suits, which spent a 12-week run in the No. 1 spot on Nielsen’s U.S. top 10 list as a result of its availability on Netflix and Peacock. In total, the program, which originally aired on USA Network from 2011 to 2019, racked up 57.7 billion viewing minutes in 2023—enough to take the crown away from another audience favorite, The Office, which generated 57.1 billion viewing minutes in 2020 amid pandemic-induced lockdowns. NCIS is the other stand-out example of a show with an entirely new life outside of linear TV, landing in the third spot on the acquired list for the year. With its availability on both Netflix and Paramount+, NCIS gained 1.3 million viewing minutes from last year to end 2023 with 39.4 billion minutes.

Unlike the many live-action shows that were affected by the strikes of 2023, an abundance of animation series were not, including Bluey und Cocomelon, which closed the year in the second and fifth spots. Engagement with Bluey, which doubled its viewing time from 2022 to 43.9 billion viewing minutes, was strong enough for it to overtake Cocomelon, which was the top program for kids in 2021 and 2022.

Despite the presence of the writer and actor strikes last year, a handful of originals did come to market, and the U.S. top 10 titles garnered more than 133 billion minutes viewed. The biggest surprise in the list, however, was Ted Lasso, the signature series of Apple TV+ that took the crown as most-watched original program despite the fact that the platform has a smaller relative footprint than the other platforms. Service footprint size notwithstanding, the series benefited from two notable dynamics:

• Die Vorbereitung auf die (angenommene) letzte Staffel
• Eine schrittweise Verlängerung der einzelnen Episoden von 30 Minuten in der ersten Staffel über 45 Minuten in der zweiten Staffel bis zu 60 Minuten in der dritten Staffel, die mit einem 76-minütigen Finale abgeschlossen wird.

In der Kategorie Film stechen zwei Highlights unter den Streaming-Trends hervor:

• Moana, released on Disney+ in late 2019, continues to engage audiences, topping all other movies in 2023 with an all-time high of 11.6 billion viewing minutes after landing in the top four spots over the past four years. Since Nielsen began measuring streaming, audiences have watched nearly 80 billion minutes of Moana, which translates to watching the full movie 775 million times.
• Originally released in 2021, Encanto’s appeal with audiences also continued into 2023 with just under 10 billion viewing minutes after topping the movie list in 2022 with 27.4 billion viewing minutes.

Looking to the year ahead, industry sentiment suggests that, even with the Hollywood strikes behind us, audiences will continue to see less new content than we saw in 2022—the likely high water mark for scripted programming. Given the massive library of existing video titles—more than 1.1 million across linear and streaming—combined with evolving distribution strategies, audiences will never find themselves with nothing to watch. That said, however, streaming will remain a dominant option in the U.S., especially as high-profile sporting events, like the recent NFL playoff game between Kansas City Chiefs vs. Miami Dolphins (which attracted 22.8 million live and same day viewers⁴), become exclusive to streaming services.

Bei der anhaltenden Aufregung um das Streaming ist es jedoch wichtig zu beachten, dass Streaming nicht mehr auf Abrufprogramme beschränkt ist. Das Aufkommen virtueller Mehrkanal-Videoprogrammverteiler (vMVPDs), kostenloser werbefinanzierter Streaming-Fernsehkanäle (FAST) und Apps, die Zugang zu Live-Programmen bieten, zeigt, dass die Grenzen zwischen linearem und Streaming-Fernsehen immer mehr verschwimmen. So werden beispielsweise mehr als 80 % der Haushalte, die über eine Internetverbindung auf TV-Inhalte zugreifen, im Jahr 2023 eine Form des linearen Programms sehen. Die Schlussfolgerung daraus ist, dass der Fernsehbildschirm nach wie vor das wichtigste Gerät für die Mediennutzung ist, aber er ist jetzt eher ein Kanal für alle Inhalte als ein Bildschirm für senderbezogene Programme.

Want more insights into the time viewers spend watching streaming video content? Check out Nielsen’s Bewertungen von Streaming-Inhalten.

Sources

1. The Gauge: Streaming usage accounted for more than one-third of total TV usage in February 2023 and has remained above 35% since May 2023.
2. Ausgeschlossen ist lineares Streaming (Live-Fernsehen über Apps).
3. Gracenote Globale Videodaten; October 2023.
4. Nielsen National TV Panel.