Demos: ABC Starts The Summer On Top, Netflix Leads Subscription VOD Platforms

Broadcast: As the summer season kicks off and an influx of new television programming graces the airwaves, broadcast channels vie for the viewership of the American general audience. Major networks such as ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox compete for the #1 spot while more niche channels like The CW attempt to find their loyal viewers. In the month of June, ABC continued to reign supreme as the the nation’s #1 station. Pulling in an average of 3.328 million prime time viewers, it holds a comfortable lead above its competition. Coming in at the #2 spot was NBC with an average of 2.971 million viewers. Not far behind it, however, was CBS with an average of 2.792 million viewers. FOX, on the other hand, struggled to keep up with the competition with a notably lower average viewership of 1.306 million. Way below these powerhouse networks was The CW with an average of 342,000 prime time viewers. Despite its inferior numbers, the CW demonstrated consistent viewership throughout June, suggesting that its viewers are here to stay.

It has been some time since FOX has been able to put up consistent numbers that rival those of ABC, CBS, and NBC. These three stations are some of the oldest networks found on broadcast television and for decades they have dominated the airwaves and will likely continue to do so. ABC demonstrated some of its strongest numbers at the beginning of the month, hitting a high of 11.454 million viewers and having a few other days where it reached 10.045 million viewers and 9.096 million viewers. However; towards the end of the month it demonstrated an observable decline with certain days dropping below the 2 million viewer mark. NBC demonstrated a similar trend with its lowest viewership numbers coming in towards the end of the month, with certain days dropping below 2 million and even one day dropping as low as 808,000 viewers. Of these three networks, CBS demonstrated the most consistency in its viewership, with its number fluctuating the least. Over the last three months these stations’ viewership has been neck and neck, so with ABC claiming victory over the month of June, it will be interesting to see if it can maintain its superior viewership as we move further into the summer.

Cable: Due to the paid nature of Cable television, audiences are able to access a wider range of stations that can be geared towards more specific groups and interests. This typically means that on average these channels will have a lower daily viewership when compared to Broadcast TV. Among these channels are ones that target people of color as well as general interest networks that are owned by people of color or are affiliated with a media conglomerate. Throughout June BET averaged 204,000 daily viewers, while BET Her averaged 20,000 viewers. Cleo TV averaged 9,000 viewers. Comedy.TV brought in 3,000 daily viewers while Justice Central saw 10,000 daily viewers. Magnolia Network had a much higher viewership, averaging 117,000 a day, while OWN saw 92,000 daily viewers. Finally, the Weather Channel had a daily average viewership of 85,000.

Spanish Language: With Spanish being the second most popular language in the United States, there are several networks that cater to a Spanish-speaking audience. One of the largest of these networks is Univision, which in June saw a prime-time viewer average of 1.212 million. Behind Univision is Telemundo which pulled in 651,000 average viewers during prime time and then UniMas which averaged 393,000. Univision viewership remained mostly consistent throughout the month with the exception of a couple of days in the middle where it dropped as low as 543,000. Telemundo’s viewership did not fluctuate too significantly, with a high of 778,000 and a low of 334,000. UniMas saw a surge in viewership towards the end of the month, reaching as high as 713,000. Smaller networks such as TUDN, Universo, GalaNovelas, and BeIN Sports Espanol had total daily viewer average of 28,000, 22,000, 3,000, and 1,300 respectively.

Streaming Viewership for May 2023 in %

Streaming: The past few years has seen the streaming model establish itself as a cornerstone of modern TV consumption. The Nielsen data collected from the month of May states that the streamer viewership accounts for 36.4% of total TV viewing, up from 34% the previous month. This number was higher than both Broadcast and Cable, which accounted for 22.8% and 31.1% respectively. The strongest streaming performance came from Youtube which accounted for 23.35% of the total streaming viewership. Next was Netflix at 21.7%. Then Hulu at 10.16%. Prime Video had 8.52% and Disney+ had 4.95%. Tubi, one of the free, ad supported streaming services available, accounted for 3.57% of total streaming viewership. HBO Max in its final month before shutting down to make room for MAX only saw 3.30% of streaming views. Not far behind it was Peacock and Roku which each saw 3.02% of streaming views. Finally Pluto, another free, ad supported service, saw 2.47% of streaming views. The remaining 15.94% went to other streaming services, which includes any high-bandwidth video streaming on television and any apps designed to deliver live broadcast and cable programming.