YouTube‘s tireless work to challenge network television has paid off: According to the latest data from , it is officially the first streaming platform ever to exceed 10% of total living room TV usage Nielsen.
This milestone was reached in July after the series achieved 9.7% of total television audiences in March and 9.9% in June. In July it is at 10.4%, with the nearest competitor, Netflixand lags behind with 8.4%.
And this record-breaking 10.4% contributes to another record: Streaming in total (including YouTube, Netflix, Amazon‘S Prime Video, Hulu, Disney+, Tube, Roku, peacock, Max, Outstanding+, PlutoTVand a few unnamed smaller streamers) met 41.4% of all TV viewers in the living room– the largest share of all ad formats in Nielsen data history.
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Cable television reached 26.7% and broadcast television 20.3%. Streaming therefore not only has a higher share of television viewers, but also a much higher share of television viewers – in the case of radio, almost twice as high.
We suspect that YouTube is quite happy with this number. At its last Brandcastwhich of course took place during the TV-focused Upfronts rather than the digital-focused Newfronts, a change YouTube made in 2022. Now the number is even bigger and we expect that number to continue to grow by the next Brandcast.
We believe YouTube could make a big contribution to this growth. NFL Sunday TicketNielsen’s data for July showed that Olympics The coverage helped Peacock score its second-highest TV viewership share ever (1.5%), up 33% from the previous month. Viewers are hungrier for live sports by the minute, so the ability to watch Sunday Ticket on their living room TVs could boost YouTube’s numbers once the NFL season starts. (YouTube really wants that, by the way: It’s rolling out even more Sunday Ticket features to lure viewers.)
The only advantage other streaming services have over YouTube is original scripts and non-scripts, from Love Island USAwhich also contributed to Peacock’s 33% month-on-month growth, Max’ House of the Dragonwhich was the most watched show of all streaming services in July with 4.7 billion minutes watched on TV. This show alone gave Max a 4% increase over the previous month and kept it at 1.4% of total TV viewership.
While YouTube may not have any broadcast-produced reality TV shows or fantasy epics, it does have millions upon millions of creators producing content in all niches—and YouTube’s new record clearly shows that that’s exactly what many viewers want.
