Linear TV Loses Ground to Streaming in February

 Despite the hype and action of the Super Bowl, traditional linear TV services continued to lose ground against streaming services in February. Brandon Blake, our expert entertainment lawyer Los Angeles from Blake & Wang P.A., takes a closer look at the figures.

 


                                                                     Brandon Blake

 

Below 50% of the Market

 

In February, cable and broadcast services accounted for just 44% of all TV usage, a further slip from its January totals. This was despite their being record-making audiences for the Super Bowl, one of the highlights of the live sports calendar and traditionally a big moment for linear services.

 

Ironically, the Super Bowl this year drove one of Nielsen’s biggest single days in the history of their Gauge reports. Pulling in over 110B (yes, billion) minutes of viewing for the match, we also saw Tubi rise in prominence thanks to Fox’s live sports streaming deals.

 

With the football season ending, linear services always lose some traction, as live sports access remains one of the few draw cards keeping linear services relevant to modern audiences. To put this in perspective, however, consider that streaming alone (43.5%) almost matched the combined totals for both cable (23.3%) and broadcast (21.2%).

 

YouTube Sees a Surprising Rise

 

Surprisingly, YouTube rose to the No. 1 spot with an all-time monthly high (11.6%), over a quarter of total streaming use on the latest Gauge report. Netflix came in at No. 2, with 8.2% of TV use. Disney, unsurprisingly, won the bronze medal, with 4.9% of the total viewing.

 

Behind them came, in order, Prime Video (3.5%), Roku Channel (2.1%), Tubi (2%), Peacock (1.5%), Paramount+ (1.3%), and Max (1.2%). Pluto TV just managed to score itself a separate waiting, with exactly 1%, and the remainder of Nielsen’s tracked streaming services making up the final 6.2%.

 

With streaming now poised to take the lead as our primary means of accessing entertainment, the future of linear and cable services is looking shaky. This could be the make-or-break year for linear TV, indeed.

 

 

 

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