There’s more than enough discussion across the media industry about the massive growth of streaming, but the ongoing fanfare fails to objectively quantify what is truly happening and the full impact that over-the-top content is having on total TV usage. To remedy that, Nielsen publishes The Gauge, its monthly snapshot of total TV and streaming usage, which equalizes measurement of the time audiences spend with their TV sets. After doing this for one year, the effect of streaming consumption is very clear, especially when we consider that the amount of time spent watching TV hasn’t changed.
Compared with mid-2020, when connected TV usage skyrocketed as people stayed home amid COVID-driven shelter-in-place restrictions, total TV usage has returned to seasonal norms, but streaming has taken a much bigger seat at the table. Between May 2021 and May 2022, streaming usage increased more than 21%. That growth allowed streaming to capture an additional 5.6 share points: streaming accounted for nearly 32% of total TV time in May 2022, up from 26% one year ago.
流媒体收视时间的增长是以牺牲其他选择（主要是有线电视）为代价的。2022 年 5 月，有线电视收视率同比下降了 7.1%，与一年前相比减少了 2.8 个电视时间份额点。相比之下，广播收视保持相对稳定，由于收视率下降了 3.3%，过去一年的电视时间份额仅下降了 0.8 个份额点，几乎可以忽略不计。
Beneath the surface of aggregate share change by channel, we can see the impact of streaming in greater detail. We can also see that streaming platforms have taken advantage of the seasonal lull in summertime viewing by introducing new titles when there is less competition for audience attention. For example, the release of season 4 of 怪事 racked up more than 5 billion viewing minutes during its opening weekend in the last week of May.
在 2021 年 5 月至 2022 年 5 月期间，The Gauge 按名称分列的六个流媒体平台（如 Netflix、Hulu、Disney+）中，每个平台的使用量都有两位数的增长。
其他收获
- Disney+ 的使用率增长了 39%，帮助该平台在全年总电视时间中的份额提高了 0.5 个百分点。
- YouTube, which includes YouTube TV, has seen the greatest increase in share, growing by a full point to take second place overall.
- Netflix 的播放量增长了 12.7%，使其在电视总播放时间中的份额跃升 0.8%，达到 6.8%。Netflix 还蝉联了使用人数最多的流媒体服务。
- 亚马逊的使用率增长了 20.8%，使其份额增加了半个百分点，在电视总时长的占比上升到 2.6%。
In addition, the “other streaming” category, which includes the platforms that have not yet reached the 1% of share threshold to be broken out individually, has grown its share from 8% to 10.5% when we include HBO Max for consistency, and is up 32.4% on an impressions basis over the past year. Much of the growth in this category stems from the proliferation of new services that have come online over the past two years, introducing vast choice that some estimate to exceed 200 services in the U.S. alone. Other big gainers in the “other streaming” category include TubiTV (75% increase in usage) and Peacock (71% increase in usage).
Amid the array of media choice, the past year serves as further evidence that streaming is the future of TV, and audience-first mindsets will be best positioned to engage viewers as connected TV usage grows toward ubiquity. Given the shifts we’ve seen over the past year, it seems likely that this summer may be remembered in the media industry as the summer of streaming—even more so than the pandemic lockdown period.
