The Olympics weren’t simply good for streaming — they boosted conventional TV viewership, too. Even although the Games in Paris accounted for simply three days of Nielsen’s July 2024 report, they led to a 2.3 p.c enhance in general TV viewing in comparison with June and a 3.5 p.c improve in comparison with the identical time final yr.
During the month, broadcast TV captured 20.3 p.c of all viewership, marking a slight improve from final month. It additionally accounted for greater than 22 p.c of TV viewing when the Olympics kicked off within the final week of July. As identified by The Hollywood Reporter, it’s uncommon to see a rise in conventional TV viewership in July, because it’s sometimes one of many slowest months for broadcast and cable TV.
Streaming equally drew in additional eyeballs, making up 41.4 p.c of all TV viewing for the month. According to Nielsen, that allowed streaming to extend its share of TV by over one level, breaking the document set in June. Peacock, which completely streamed the Olympic Games, noticed a 33 p.c leap in viewing — the most important improve Nielsen has seen because it began publishing its streaming studies in 2020.
Despite this improve, YouTube remained the top-performing streaming platform and have become the primary service to seize greater than 10 p.c of all TV viewing. Max, Disney Plus, and Prime Video additionally had notable boosts in viewing due to collection like House of the Dragon, Bluey, and The Boys.
If each cable and streaming are seeing such huge will increase primarily based on simply three days of the Olympic Games, we’ll possible see a good larger leap when Nielsen releases its report for the month of August.
