Total TV Use Hit 4-Year High In January Thanks In Part To Peacock-Only NFL Playoff Game, Nielsen Says

Overall TV use in January hit a 4-year high (not counting the early pandemic months of 2020), Nielsen said, as new originals and an NFL playoff game helped streaming set a single-day record.

In the latest edition of The Gauge, the measurement firm’s monthly snapshot of linear TV and streaming viewing (see full chart below), streaming was far and away the most popular conduit for viewers. It captured 36% of TV usage, followed by cable at 27.9% and broadcast at 24.2%.

Total TV usage rose 3.7% over December, Nielsen said, and also 1.4% over January 2023. This January also registered three of the top 10 days of overall TV usage since May 2021. January 13 was the most-streamed day in history, with 40.8 billion viewing minutes, a chunk which came from the Kansas City Chiefs-Miami Dolphins wild-card playoff game. Including local broadcast affiliates in Kansas City and Miami, which carried the game along with Peacock per the league’s rights agreement with NBCUniversal, the game drew almost 3.9 billion viewing minutes.

For the first time since May 2023, the top streaming title was an original, as Netflix’s Fool Me Once racked up 6.5 billion viewing minutes over the course of the month. Reacher on Prime Video was another notable original, finishing in fourth place overall with 4.3 billion minutes.

Peacock led all platforms with a 29% month-to-month increase, pushing its market share to 1.6%, the highest level in its history. 

YouTube notched its 12th consecutive month as the top streaming platform, with 8.6% of TV usage. (Read Deadline’s exclusive interview with two top YouTube execs about the milestone.)

Here is the full Gauge chart for January: