March Madness Boosts Cable Viewing in March

NEW YORK—Overall television usage in the U.S. declined for a second straight month, but cable viewing was boosted by the onset of the NCAA basketball playoffs, making cable the only TV format to exhibit growth from February to March, according to Nielsen’s March 2023 report of The Gauge, a monthly visualization of total TV and streaming consumption,

On the whole, TV viewing trends in March were in line with seasonal trends, with total TV usage down 2{38557cf0372cd7f85c91e7e33cff125558f1277b36a8edbab0100de866181896} from February 2023. By comparison, total TV usage declined 4.6{38557cf0372cd7f85c91e7e33cff125558f1277b36a8edbab0100de866181896} over the same period in 2022, Nielsen said.

Similar to trends in The Gauge from March 2022, cable was the only category to gain in viewership (+0.6{38557cf0372cd7f85c91e7e33cff125558f1277b36a8edbab0100de866181896}) and share (+0.8 pts.) this month, finishing at 31.1{38557cf0372cd7f85c91e7e33cff125558f1277b36a8edbab0100de866181896} share of television. This was not only the largest monthly increase for the cable category since last year’s March Madness tournament, but also the first time since August 2022 that cable viewing demonstrated any monthly uptick, Nielsen reported.

Compared with the same period one year ago, however, cable viewing was down 13.7{38557cf0372cd7f85c91e7e33cff125558f1277b36a8edbab0100de866181896} in March 2023 and the category has lost 5.9 share points, Nielsen reported.

At 23.3{38557cf0372cd7f85c91e7e33cff125558f1277b36a8edbab0100de866181896} share of total TV, broadcast viewing was down 4.4{38557cf0372cd7f85c91e7e33cff125558f1277b36a8edbab0100de866181896} in March and the category lost 0.6 share points versus February.

For broadcasters, viewing of the general drama genre increased slightly this month and accounted for 30.5{38557cf0372cd7f85c91e7e33cff125558f1277b36a8edbab0100de866181896} (largest) of broadcast viewing. Meanwhile, The Oscars drove a 153{38557cf0372cd7f85c91e7e33cff125558f1277b36a8edbab0100de866181896} increase in the award/ceremonies genre to account for 1.1{38557cf0372cd7f85c91e7e33cff125558f1277b36a8edbab0100de866181896} of viewing to the broadcast category.

Compared with March 2022, broadcast viewing has dropped 4.0{38557cf0372cd7f85c91e7e33cff125558f1277b36a8edbab0100de866181896} and its share of television is down 1.6 share points, Nielsen said.

Viewership of streaming content was down 2.6{38557cf0372cd7f85c91e7e33cff125558f1277b36a8edbab0100de866181896} in March compared with February, and the streaming category saw its first loss in share (-0.2 pts.) since August 2022, but still finished the month with the largest share of TV at 34.1{38557cf0372cd7f85c91e7e33cff125558f1277b36a8edbab0100de866181896}. Despite the monthly downturn, however, streaming usage has increased by over a third compared with March 2022.

Across streaming platforms in March, Pluto TV and Peacock showed notable increases. Pluto TV saw the largest increase in usage at 4.6{38557cf0372cd7f85c91e7e33cff125558f1277b36a8edbab0100de866181896}, which pushed its share to 0.8{38557cf0372cd7f85c91e7e33cff125558f1277b36a8edbab0100de866181896} of TV. Peacock usage climbed 3.1{38557cf0372cd7f85c91e7e33cff125558f1277b36a8edbab0100de866181896} to notch a platform-high 1.1{38557cf0372cd7f85c91e7e33cff125558f1277b36a8edbab0100de866181896} of total TV usage.

Additional streaming highlights included:

Netflix accounted for 7.3{38557cf0372cd7f85c91e7e33cff125558f1277b36a8edbab0100de866181896} of total TV usage in March (flat vs. February) as viewers watched more than 4.7 billion minutes of Outer Banks, the most of any streaming program this month, as well as nearly 3.6 billion minutes of You.
Disney+ was also flat compared with February, accounting for 1.8{38557cf0372cd7f85c91e7e33cff125558f1277b36a8edbab0100de866181896} of TV viewing, and its new season of The Mandalorian notched over 3.6 billion viewing minutes, making it the second most-streamed program in March.
YouTube, excluding YouTube TV, remained the most-used streaming platform in March with 7.8{38557cf0372cd7f85c91e7e33cff125558f1277b36a8edbab0100de866181896} of total TV usage.