Broadcast, Cable Score Share Gains In January, Nielsen Says

“Squid Game’ was the most-streamed show in January (Photo courtesy of Netflix)

Big football games and news events in Washington boosted television usage in January and helped broadcast and cable increase their share of viewing, according to new data from Nielsen.

Viewing in January was up 5% from December fueled by NFL and college football games, New Year’s Eve programming, the Golden Globes and news from the change in administrations in Washington.

Broadcast’s share rose to 22.5% from 22.4% in December, with the AFC Championship Game on CBS drawing 57.4 million viewers and the NFC Championship game attracting 44.2 million viewers for Fox. With viewing of drama series (CBS’s Watson got 10.3 million viewers) and news also up in the month, broadcast viewing was up 5.1%. ABC’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve drew 17.9 million viewers.

Cable’s share jumped to 24.4% from 23.8%, thanks to sports and news. ESPN had the expanded College Football Playoffs, which helped sports to a 42% increase in viewing with the top seven cable telecasts in the month. Nielsen said that 22.1 million viewers watched Ohio State win the National Championship Game on January 20.

Streaming’s share slipped to 42.6% of TV usage from 43.3%, despite a 3% increase in viewing. Streaming still had the largest share of viewing as a category and usage was up 21% from a year ago.

Nielsen said that Netflix followed a strong December with an even stronger January, as viewership rose 7% to a new high share of 8.6% of TV. Netflix’s big month was due in large part to Squid Game, which generated 9 billion viewing minutes as January’s top streaming title.

The Roku Channel also extended its growth streak, increasing viewership by 9% in January to reach a 2.1% share.

With The Walt Disney Co. putting Hulu and ESPN titles on its Disney+ app, Nielsen is reporting usage of those services as Disney Streaming starting this month. Disney Streaming had a 4.7% share of TV usage in January. Disney’s Bluey, the top streaming title in 2024, was January’s second most-streamed program with 4.7 billion viewing minutes accumulated on Disney+.

The Paramount+ original series Landman rounded out the top three streaming titles in January with 4.4 billion viewing minutes, and helped the streamer tie its platform best share with 1.4% of TV.