“YouTube Dominates TV Viewing, Outperforms Competitors”

Nielsen data that excludes YouTube TV shows that US TV households watched 1.5% more YouTube between March 27 and April 30, 2023. YouTube ended the month with 8.1% of television viewing time, up 0.3 share points. Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, Prime Video, Peacock, and Hulu reported flat or declining viewership in March 2023. Two free, ad-supported TV services increased month-over-month: Fox’s Tubi grew 6% in the month, adding 0.1 share points to its 1.1% share of overall TV viewing, while Paramount’s Pluto TV grew 3.9%, keeping its 0.8% stake.

For the second month in a row, streaming had a share loss (-0.1 points). YouTube led streaming platforms with 8.1% time spent viewing in Nielsen’s April The Gauge survey. Netflix had 6.9%, Hulu 3.3%, Amazon’s Prime Video 2.8%, Disney+ 1.8%, HBO Max 1.2%, Peacock 1.1%, and Pluto TV 0.8%. In April, Nielsen reported 23.1% for broadcast TV and 31.5% for cable.

Despite this, US broadcast, cable, and streaming TV viewership fell 1.9% sequentially in April, the third consecutive month of a downturn, which Nielsen observed is typical for this time of year. YouTube’s VP of the Americas, Tara Walpert Levy, said the market was “a bit surprised” when YouTube topped Nielsen’s February TV watching rankings. However, YouTube’s market share is growing, and Nielsen reports that one-third of YouTube’s 18-and-older audience cannot be accessed by other ad-supported streaming services.