Not only has advertising started to flourish as a means of monetization across platforms and services, live, scheduled programming continues to gain traction as content creators, media companies and device manufacturers roll out new free ad-supported television (FAST) channels to a growing number of platforms.

Yet as quickly as some creators may develop and launch a new FAST channel, ideally with a strategic distribution plan, ensuring a channel’s long-term viability is anything but guaranteed.

For starters, the FAST landscape has become incredibly crowded over the last year. Given the rapidly evolving FAST landscape, industry size estimations are varied. According to Gracenote Video Data, there are more than 1,900 individual FAST channels for audiences to choose from, with more than 1,300 in the U.S. alone. For context, there were just 1,000 in the U.S. mid-way through 2023.

That’s more than 21% growth in eight months. And what’s more, individual FAST platforms, such as Pluto TV, Amazon’s Freevee and Tubi, typically have hundreds of channels within them, providing ample choice within individual electronic program guides.

Industry congestion notwithstanding, viewer engagement and advertising dollars are increasingly focused on over-the-top¹ content that audiences access via their connected TVs (CTV²). In third-quarter 2023, for example, audiences spent just under two hours per day with CTV content³, representing more than 40% of their total time with TV (4:34 per day). 

Time with FAST programming is also growing: Pluto TV, Tubi and the Roku Channel accounted for 3.7% of total TV use⁴ in February 2024. With viewership rising, advertising is following suit. Digital TV Research Ltd., for example, forecasts that global FAST revenue will hit $17 billion in 2029, up from $8 billion in 2023.

Not everyone will benefit from the upswing. More channels does not equate to more viewership. It simply disperses viewership. This is true across the streaming industry, and audiences are overwhelmed. A January Motley Fool survey, for example, found that 62% of audiences say there are too many streaming options, with 39% reporting pulling back on the services they subscribe to on a year-over-year basis.

FAST services stand to benefit from subscription overload, as a 2023 Deloitte survey found that 19% of consumers have switched from a paid subscription to a FAST service. Additionally, Nielsen’s latest streaming consumer survey found that 70% of respondents said they are familiar with FAST and have watched FAST content in the past three months. Access to new content is a primary driver, with 63% saying they have access to traditional VOD services but are interested in exploring new content on FAST platforms.

Yet with the industry intently focused on content monetization, creators, publishers and broadcasters entering the FAST industry need to do more than simply make their programming available to viewers.

The best way to engage and maintain audiences is by offering them something they’re actually looking for. But content isn’t born with an innate ability to deliver itself to audiences. That’s where metadata comes in. But like content, metadata is not homogenous. This is especially the case in FAST services, where individual channels come from an array of distributors.

But when content includes a Gracenote ID, it’s automatically linked to an array of standardized entertainment assets that are critical in fulfilling audience search and discovery journeys. Linked information includes:

• Description
• Genre
• Cast
• Imagery
• Program availability

Still in its early days, the FAST ecosystem is playing catch up with respect to metadata. A recent analysis, for example, found that 31% of the FAST programming submitted to Gracenote did not include any genre information. This, in and of itself, will limit monetization opportunities, as brands and agencies are unlikely to advertise against content without knowing the program genre.

But having the basics is just the beginning. Succeeding in the future will require data enrichment strategies that build on the basics of imagery and descriptions by providing a more complete picture of your content. Additions like mood, theme, scenario and setting provide a new layer of information that can elevate the appeal of programming among audiences looking for something to watch.

Additionally, enriched metadata can help ensure that content stands out as next-generation FAST experiences arrive, including enhanced search and discovery algorithms for recommendation engines—which are now table stakes in traditional VOD environments.

The importance of normalized and comprehensive metadata can’t be over-emphasized. Disney’s recent metadata overhaul to bring Hulu content into the Disney+ app, highlights the immense differences that individual apps and platforms have with respect to content and metadata.

While this exercise took place in the VOD space, it speaks to the myriad approaches to metadata across the streaming landscape and the associated distribution challenges this causes. Having the right metadata partner, however, ensures that content quickly plugs into any platform and offers the richest audience experience possible—including those that have yet to materialize in the FAST ecosystem.

For additional insight into the needs of FAST content heading into the future, download our FAST toolkit. 

Sources:

¹Over-the-top (OTT) refers to streaming video content that audiences access through an internet connection.
²CTV refers to any television that is connected to the internet. The most common use case is to stream video content.
³Nielsen National TV Panel
⁴Nielsen’s The Gauge, February 2024

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While the lines between these two environments are blurring, they currently exist independent from one another, which means that marketers need to understand how each is structured and evolving so they can best navigate the intricacies to best capitalize on the promise of personalization.

The digital advertising ecosystem is fundamentally different for CTV than it is for other platforms.

• In browser-based digital media, marketers have used third-party cookies for audience-specific digital engagement for more than 20 years. Now, as the industry moves away from cookies, Nielsen is prepared to use other identifiers such as hashed emails (HEMs) or any other ubiquitous identifiers that the industry uses, as there is no single universal identifier that the ecosystem has adopted that is a true replacement for cookies. Nielsen is recommending the use of HEMs for digital measurement as it is a non-proprietary identifier that can be generated without integrating with other third-party systems.
• In video-based CTV, marketers use a combination of first-party identifiers, unique device IDs and/or household IP addresses for audience-specific advertising.

While complex and evolving, these environments become significantly more navigable for marketers when they have person-based measurement data to tap into for their campaign efforts.

Foundational differences aside, traditional digital media and CTV are similar in that they offer the same value proposition to marketers: a direct means of communicating with specific audiences. While many throughout the industry expected media spending across traditional digital channels to decline as cookies become obsolete and access to mobile identifiers becomes more difficult, a custom survey² fielded by Nielsen ahead of the 2024 Upfronts/NewFronts season found that advertisers and agencies expect their digital allocations to outpace those across CTV and streaming.

Given the recessionary environment, total ad spending in the U.S. was down in 2023 on a year-over-year basis, but marketers did increase their allocations in select channels to navigate the unsettled environment, including business-to-business, local magazines, local radio, regional cinema, network radio and streaming³. And generally speaking, marketers pulled back less (on a percentage basis) across digital channels than they did across traditional mass reach channels like network and cable TV.

Media allocations are following audience engagement

The increased shift to digital channels highlights marketers’ desire to follow media consumption trends, while simultaneously leveraging technology to bridge more meaningful relationships with audiences. From a digital engagement perspective, CTV now reaches 74% of U.S. TV homes⁴, 84.1% of TV homes have access to a subscription video on-demand (SVOD) service⁵ and U.S. audiences spend nearly four hours each day with their digital devices⁵. 

Despite understanding how audiences are spending their time with traditional digital media and CTV, we know that the emergence of new media channels adds to the measurement needs of marketers. Nielsen’s 2023 Annual Marketing Report found that 62% of global marketers rely on multiple tools for their cross-measurement, and 14% use four or five.

Findings from our 2024 Upfront/NewFront survey support these findings, as 26% of advertiser/agency respondents say that relying on multiple solutions to measure across channels is their top challenge. Additionally, 41% say that a lack of transparency into audience data is among their top two biggest cross-media measurement challenges.

With a lack of clear insight into their audiences, it’s not surprising that 51% of respondents say they’re concerned that their cross-media campaigns are being delivered to their intended audiences, which has a ripple effect with respect to evaluating cross-channel campaign effectiveness. 

Advertisers remain largely dependent on third-party cookies

In web-based environments, Google has stated it plans to deprecate third-party cookies by the end of 2024. While companies like Nielsen have developed technology to match data with HEMs and other identifiers, the digital ecosystem needs to evolve to a point where HEMs and/or alternate identifiers become ubiquitous.

To date, despite the imminent demise of third-party cookies, advertisers remain dependent on them. A recent report from supply chain platform 33Across, for example, found that advertisers throughout the second half of 2023 invested the vast majority of their programmatic spending with the aid of cookies. Retail and insurance brands have made the most progress in moving away from cookies, but still used cookies for 74% and 76% of their programmatic spending, respectively. Food and drink brands are at the other end of the spectrum, with 87% of their programmatic spending dependent on cookies.

With the clock ticking for the ultimate demise of the third-party cookie, it’s critical that brands begin capturing email addresses for use in HEMs and/or alternate identifiers. It’s also important for identity providers to begin passing email addresses in addition to device identifiers. With this information, providers like Nielsen can ingest the necessary data to measure the impact of targeted marketing campaigns in the absence of third-party cookies. 

Staying personal amid the rise of CTV

Unlike in web-based environments, programmatic ad delivery in CTV has never been dependent on third-party cookies. The scaled and addressable advertising ecosystem developing in CTV is based on connections between first-party IDs and IP addresses. Here, the first-party IDs replace cookies.     

In terms of ad spend, GroupM notes that CTV is where all the upside in TV resides, forecasting compound annual growth of 9.5% to $45.8 billion in 2028. From an advertiser and agency perspective, CTV is not as well positioned to deliver on their primary KPIs as online video and online display advertising.

Clarity into the audiences engaging the CTV content is paramount in helping brands best understand how to engage with relevant viewers. And just as in traditional web-based environments, data within CTV is growing increasingly privacy-focused. 

That’s where having person-based panel data as a truth set amid growing big data sources is critical. Nielsen’s big data set, for example, includes 45 million households and covers 75 million devices. When backstopped by a gold-standard panel composed of more than 101,000 individual people, measurement offers the combination of scale, coverage and granularity, all of which are critical for advertisers and agencies seeking to stay connected with specific audiences as the media landscape evolves.

Sources

¹CTV refers to any television that is connected to the internet. The most common use case is to stream video content.
²Custom survey conducted online between Oct. 9 and Oct. 23, 2023. Survey respondents included 250 marketing professionals with responsibility for media planning, media strategy and media buying.
³Nielsen Ad Intel; January-September 2022-2023 YOY comparison.
⁴Nielsen National TV Panel; Q3 2023
⁵Nielsen National TV Panel; February 2024

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In seasonal fashion, TV usage declined in February following the end of the NFL playoffs. While Super Bowl LVIII was a standout that attracted 123.7 million viewers, the 6.4% dip in viewership for the month was considerably larger than it was in the previous two years (5.7% and 5.1%, respectively). This fact, however, is more of a testament to how strong viewing was in January 2024 than in the previous two years.

In addition to attracting the largest TV audience on record, the Super Bowl played a big role in making Feb. 11, 2024, the day with the most TV viewing since The Gauge was launched in May 2021. In total, the game delivered 30 billion viewing minutes—5 billion more than last year’s game. Going into overtime, however, did contribute here.

Outside of the action around the Super Bowl, broadcast viewing receded following its climb into January, with viewing down 10% overall. The sports genre was a major factor in its decline, as sports viewing dropped 66% in the wake of the NFL playoffs. On a year-over-year basis, the overall drop in broadcast viewing is in line with last year’s 9.2% decline. With some new content in rotation, however, the drama category gained momentum to command 26% of broadcast viewing in February. With all eyes on the Super Bowl in February, CBS used the big game to get audiences excited for its new season, featuring Tracker, NCIS, FBI and the final season of Young Sheldon.

Across cable, news viewing increased 7% as audiences tuned in to election year coverage, while sports viewing was down by about one-third. Even without as many sports events, the sports genre still delivered the top programs for cable, with the 2024 NBA All-Star Game simulcast on TNT, TBS and TruTV taking the top slot, followed by the NBA All-Star Saturday Night on TNT and TruTV.

TV viewing typically starts to decline as the spring season approaches. This seasonality affects all TV viewing, but it had less of an impact on streaming in February than the other categories. As a result, streaming usage dipped 1.9%, but the category was able to gain 1.7 share points to account for 37.7% of TV usage, its largest share of total TV since August 2023. It’s also 3.4 share points above February 2023.

As we’re not yet seeing a consistent release of new titles, acquired titles continued to attract the most viewership, with Young Sheldon (Netflix, Max) topping the rankings with 4.6 billion viewing minutes, followed by Bluey (Disney+) with 4.5 billion and Grey’s Anatomy (Netflix) with 3.5 billion. Netflix’s Griselda added some new content to the rankings, coming in fourth with 3.2 billion.

As it does for the broadcast and cable categories, sports has started to make a mark in the streaming category when high-profile events are shown. After gaining in January as a result of its exclusive NFL Wildcard game, Peacock usage dropped 19%, while Paramount+ gained 24% in February as a result of its simultaneous carriage of the Super Bowl alongside CBS. Both platforms have also benefited from the appeal of new original programming, namely Ted and the Traitors on Peacock (1.3 billion minutes combined) and Halo on Paramount+, accounting for 1.2 billion viewing minutes.

February was also a big month for FAST services, as Pluto TV, Tubi and the Roku Channel experienced gains of 10%, 8.3% and 8.1%, respectively. YouTube also posted a platform-best share in February, capturing 9.3% of total TV usage.

February data trends with Brian Fuhrer

Methodology and frequently asked questions

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Follow along as we break down what advanced audiences are, why they matter and how they’re changing the ad world.

What’s an advanced audience?

In traditional media spaces, the standard demographic filters used to understand and reach audiences has been age and gender. Advanced audiences can go well beyond these basic demos. 

Advanced audiences, sometimes called custom audiences, are consumer segments marketers use to group people together based on where they live, what they buy or intend to buy, how much money they make, the media they consume, the communities they’re part of, and so on. Marketers bring these audience lists to advertising platforms so they can reach them there with specific messaging. 

The idea is that by narrowing down the group of recipients, you’re able to get hyper-targeted with your campaigns so they’re more likely to resonate. You increase effectiveness and reduce wasted spend by only reaching the folks who will likely care about what you’re selling, and you’re also able to see exactly how well campaigns performed within these groups. What you sacrifice in mass reach, you make up for in increased relevance. 

Advanced audience segments are built from first, second or third-party data, or some combination of the three, which we’ll get into in the next section. 

Once you have your advanced audience lists, you can build lookalike audiences that expand your initial group based on their commonalities. For example, if everybody in your initial advanced audience list cares about pets and uses TikTok, then a lookalike audience will include people who also care about pets and use TikTok. 

What do you need to create advanced audiences? 

Advanced audiences sound great, right? Now let’s look at how you actually build them. 

The first and most important step is securing your data.

First-party data

First-party data is audience information collected directly from the consumer, by the brand. 

Brands with the ability to collect their own audience data have an upper hand. Since it’s controlled by the brand and gathered straight from the source (in this case the audience), brands are able to easily expand what information gets captured with every channel interaction, new purchase, survey response or chatbot conversation. 
The value of first-party data is exactly why so many brands create incentives for consumers to engage within their ecosystems. Sign up and get 20% off your next purchase. Create an account and see your personalized list of recommendations. Login to track your order delivery.

Second-party data

Of course, not every brand has access to first-party data. It may be hard to convince the general population to login into a soda provider’s website to order their next 12-pack. These brands may rely on second-party data, which is another’s company’s first-party data that’s acquired through a partnership. 

Third-party data 

While first and second-party data is collected directly from the audience, third-party data can come from several sources and is available for anyone to purchase. This is also the data pool most directly affected by the loss of cookies, forcing data providers to find reliable alternatives to digitally identify audiences. 

By combining proprietary Nielsen audience data (we have tens of thousands of advanced audience segments) with first-party data from our partners, Nielsen helps brands get a more comprehensive view of their ideal consumer and sharpen their campaign targeting capabilities. 

Insights are only as good as the data they’re built on. Since third-party data is gathered externally, brands should prioritize working with trusted partners who can prove the accuracy of what they deliver. 

Once you have your audience data, you can create advanced audience lists and upload them across platforms to begin targeting your campaign creative. While this is a relatively straightforward and standardized process across most digital platforms, other channels are playing catch up. 

Where can you use advanced audiences?  

Advanced audience targeting first became a thing online thanks to the level of detail our digital footprints leave behind. Through digital identifiers, like usernames and browsing histories, marketers are able to tap into rich levels of consumer insight: who they are, what they want to consume and what they do after seeing an ad.  All of these inputs help marketers create resonant campaigns for groups as niche as their data allows—informing everything from the creative to the timing and placement. It also helped digital platforms and publishers prove their ability to reach the exact audiences their clients cared about. 

Traditional media like broadcast and cable may have unbeatable reach, but digital media is all about precision. At least that’s been the historical trade-off. But as the world has gone digital, there are new and heightened expectations for all channels to support the same level of audience addressability and performance accountability. 

In the past decade, traditional media have carved out new outlets to dynamically address advertising to advanced audiences, like connected TV (CTV), free, ad-supported TV (FAST) channels and data-driven linear¹. Still, there are foundational differences in how readily these channels can support planning and measuring against niche audience segments.  

The next phase of advanced audiences will be ensuring standardized utility no matter the medium. This will require system overhauls to prioritize interoperability²— with the end goal being that the audience defined is the audience reached.  

How do advanced audiences work at Nielsen? 

Supporting this interoperability vision is at the heart of Nielsen’s strategy. We are acutely aware of the headaches a fragmented media environment creates for all sides of the media industry. It’s harder to reach specific audiences and manage how often they see your campaigns. Comprehensive planning and activation feels impossible as everything gets brought down to channel specifics. 

But what if traditional media consistently operated with the same level of insight and personalization as digital? What if you could bring your own audiences to every platform and use them for planning, measurement and optimization?

Within the Nielsen ecosystem, you’re able to bring your own IDs or choose from audience segments developed from our cross-channel big data sets calibrated by gold-standard people panels. All audience data then goes through the Nielsen Identity System to ensure a deduplicated view of the audience across all screens and channels. What’s more, you’re able to reuse these audiences across all integrated Nielsen products and ensure audiences definitions are consistent across the entire user journey. Using the same defined audience, you’re able to build your media plans based on tailored insights and forecasting, purchase media, and get a deduplicated view of how well you reached your audience across channels.

Depending on where you are in the world, all of this is available today with Nielsen. But we are just getting started. Advanced audiences are now at the center of this brave, new advertising world, and Nielsen is here to help you thrive in it. 

Notes

¹Data-driven linear is a process marketers use to allocate linear TV programming spend against demos beyond age and gender.
²Interoperability, in this instance, is when different technological systems interact with each other seamlessly. For example, being able to send and receive emails across all providers is interoperability at work.

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While prices may be higher, the extra spending could pay off even for non-political advertisers. News programming typically sees a boost in viewership during election years. U.S. News viewership in 2020 was extraordinarily high due to COVID coverage, social unrest and a tight election. But even during the mid-year election in 2022, both broadcast and cable news programming saw audiences spending more time with news than the non-election years 2021 and 2023. 

Time spent with news differs across demos 

Understanding consumption habits can help you reach the right audiences on the right media. With 24-hour news programming, it’s not surprising that Americans spent more time with cable news than broadcast news in 2023. When we look at total time spent by gender, both genders follow the trends for the population as a whole. However, while men watched slightly (5.7%) more minutes of cable news than women, women watched 47.7% more minutes of broadcast news than men.

Black viewers spend the most time with TV in general, including news programming, well ahead of Hispanic and Asian viewers. Both Black and Asian viewers follow the general population pattern, spending more time with cable news programming than broadcast. In this, Hispanic viewers are the outlier, spending slightly more annual minutes with broadcast news than cable. Advertisers looking to influence women and Hispanic voters shouldn’t overlook the power of traditional broadcast news.

News programming access is expanding 

How viewers are accessing both broadcast and cable is changing. Americans are increasingly using over-the-air (OTA) and over-the-top (OTT) devices, including virtual multichannel video programming distributors (vMVPDs), such as YouTubeTV, Sling TV and Hulu+ Live TV, to access TV programming. Household vMVPD subscriptions have increased year-over-year for the last three years, growing from 12.1% of all U.S. TV households in December 2021 to 16.5% in December 2023¹. And news viewing on vMVPDs follows a similar trend. 

The increase in vMVPD viewership hints at a larger shift of audiences toward digital and connected TV (CTV). And these media will likely capture big ad dollars as part of this election cycle–eMarketer forecasts digital political ad spend will hit $3.46 billion this year. 

The right media mix is critical to reach voters

To better understand digital trends, we used our Scarborough consumer insights to study how people affiliated with different political parties use the internet or apps to consume video content. Reaching independent voters will be critical for political campaigns eager to earn votes from undecided audiences. And understanding how they report connecting to digital video content can make sure marketers reach them in the right places. 

Those who consider themselves to be independent but say they align closer to the Democrat party are 15% more likely than the average U.S. adult to watch technology news video content on the internet or apps². Beyond news content, these respondents were 17% more likely to watch cartoon videos. Meanwhile, those who consider themselves independent but say they align closer to the Republican party are 15% more likely than the average U.S. adult to watch business news on the internet or apps. Outside of news, they’re 13% more likely to watch sports videos. 

But with Google’s depreciation of cookies in the second half of this year, all advertisers will likely have a harder time reaching the right audiences on digital media. This could cause marketers to shift their ad dollars, including political ad dollars, toward publishers with their own robust first-party data. The programmatic power of CTV is enticing to marketers, but reach is far more complicated in CTV than linear TV because of the commingled nature of the platform and campaign IDs in measurement data. Through that lens, it’s not surprising that only 31% of global marketers say they’re very confident in measuring the ROI of their CTV investments³.

For political marketers, adding radio to the marketing mix could offer valuable incremental reach opportunities for campaigns. Nielsen recently conducted a study of 2022 political campaigns using Nielsen Media Impact. In the competitive 2022 Pennsylvania Senate race between Dr. Mehmet Oz and John Fetterman, we found that, by allocating one-fifth of the ad budget to AM/FM radio, the Fetterman campaign was able to deliver a 12% bump in audience reach without increasing spend. With radio’s hyper local listenership, tailoring messaging—and media placements—to the city level can help advertisers reach key demographics.

2024 will present challenges for political and non-political advertisers alike to reach audiences across media. Better understanding how audiences are consuming news content can help them navigate this fragmented landscape successfully. And being creative in your cross-media mix can help drive incremental reach with key audiences.

Source

¹Numbers based on Nielsen’s panel penetration. Nielsen began producing households with a vMVPD Universe Estimate (UE) in July 2023. That UE has increased month-over-month, growing from 15.9% in July 2023 to 16.4% in February 2024.
²Includes types of video content streamed from the Internet on a computer (laptop or desktop), mobile device (smartphone or tablet) or Internet connected device (such as Roku, smart TV, game console, etc.) in the past 30 days.
³Nielsen Annual Marketing Report, 2024.

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At Nielsen, we’re committed to innovating on our industry-accepted TV audience measurement to ensure the media industry can trade with confidence. To that end, we’ve invested a decade of research in integrating big data sets into our methodologies in innovative ways that also ensure continuity with our currency measurement. For the ‘24-’25 TV season in the U.S., we have enhanced our Big Data + Panel stream to include Comcast data (in addition to DISH, DirecTV, Roku and Vizio).

Our big data set includes 45 million big data households and 75 million devices, which rivals that of any other measurement provider. By combining (and validating) our big data with our gold-standard panel of approximately 42,000 U.S. homes (including 101,000+ real people), we’re able to leverage the scale and coverage of big data with the granularity and representation of our industry-leading panel for deeper audience insights.

To help the industry navigate the transition, both our Big Data + Panel and Panel measurement data will be available for the coming TV season. And with two views of the U.S. audience for every Nielsen-measured telecast in 2023, we inevitably see some differences. Whenever a measurement sample changes, audience estimates will also change. They may go up or down depending on the individual network, program or telecast, but larger sample sizes facilitate more comprehensive measurement. To help the industry better plan and negotiate around this year’s TV season with Big Data + Panel, we’ve compared average overall TV usage, as well as for programs and genres, for the past year.

How does total TV usage change?

With Big Data + Panel, the total U.S. households using television in 2023 increased slightly across most age groups compared with TV panel data alone. When we break TV usage out by race and ethnicity, we see similar trends. The numbers of Hispanic and Black households using television also generally increased across each age group with Big Data + Panel. Differences in the data sets vary by age groups across all demographics, but each of the three segments showed the most significant increase among older age groups (people 65+).

In addition to understanding how audiences of different age, race and ethnicity shift with Big Data + Panel, understanding changes throughout the day is also important for media planning. When we look at viewing throughout the day, TV usage generally increased slightly during each part of the day. Overnight hours had the smallest increase.

With 45 million big data households and 75 million devices, our Big Data + Panel approach expands coverage and scale. Greater coverage and scale allow for the measurement of even more people and programs. For both buyers and sellers, this opens up more opportunities to understand and engage with viewers. Audiences today are eager to see themselves in both the content and ads on TV, especially Black and Hispanic audiences. Understanding reach across segments and dayparts can help you connect audiences with the right content (and ads) at the right time.  

While the big data brings scale, combining it with our panel data plays a key role in unlocking these audience insights. Our gold-standard panel allows media buyers and sellers to go beyond households to understand the people consuming media. They’re able to ask deeper questions, such as: Who lives in the home? How old are they? What race and ethnicity do they identify as? Who is watching the television at a given point in time? As a result, our Big Data + Panel data stream is able to provide demographic, geographic, over-the-air and broadband only household information, as well as out-of-home (OOH) viewing. 

How do program ratings change?

While overall TV usage overall generally increased across age groups, ratings across individual networks, programs and telecasts vary. Averaging the more than 111,000 programs across broadcast, cable and syndication in 2023, most program ratings saw little to no change or positive change. In fact, among people 2+, 87.5% of programs saw little to no change or positive change in ratings. Similar to overall TV usage, program ratings do differ across age groups, with older demographics seeing more change–both positive and negative.

To understand how the methodology changes impacted different programs, we also looked at programming genres. Across broadcast, cable and syndication, the average monthly percent change between Big Data + Panel and TV panel for people 2+ increased for almost all genres.

With the addition of bigger datasets, our measurement sample does change, and some of the program (and genre) rating changes may reflect these differences in data. However, program ratings also genuinely fluctuate–just as people’s behaviors do. A program’s audience will fluctuate from telecast to telecast, and these averages will reflect some of that natural variability. 

One of the key benefits of adding big data to our panel measurement is enhanced granularity and measurement stability. With deeper data sets comes increasing viewing estimate stability, reducing sampling errors, and reducing the number of programs with no reported viewing (zero ratings). Across broadcast, cable and syndication, the percentage of zero audience programs decreases with additional viewers.

The benefits of Big Data + Panel

Big data does not eliminate variability in the data and we don’t expect it to, as there is real variability in the population. However, our Big Data + Panel approach innovates on our already gold-standard panel data to deliver sensitive and stable ratings overall, resulting in the near elimination of zero ratings and reductions in telecast variability. For publishers, the increased granularity and stability of the Big Data + Panel data stream means more of the national TV inventory is monetizable: increasing from 88% to 99.9%.

For advertisers and agencies, that means more opportunities to connect with audiences. By marrying the scale of big data with person-level information from our panel, we’re able to provide more advanced targeting to unlock the ability to capitalize on linear addressable capabilities, as well as advanced audience segments.

Ultimately, Nielsen believes that a single currency (supported by secondary metrics) results in a more efficient marketplace. But during this period of transition, having both Big Data + Panel and Panel measurement available will help the industry navigate this change and trade with confidence.

Sources

¹Nielsen National TV Panel, October 2023.
²CTV refers to any television that is connected to the internet. The most common use of the internet connection is to stream video content.

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Chilly weather, coupled with the excitement of the NFL playoffs, helped boost total TV viewership 3.7% in January. While historically characteristic for the month, the uptick was perhaps more noteworthy because it was 1.4% above its level last year—a reporting period that was longer and wasn’t in short supply of new programming. In fact, January 2024 included three of the top 10 days with the most TV viewing since Nielsen began producing The Gauge in May 2021.

While football is always a heavy driver of TV viewing, colder-than-usual weather played a role in TV viewing in markets that aren’t as seasonally cool, including Tulsa and Portland, where TV viewing increased 10% and 7%, respectively. And in Tampa, the cooler temps and the Buccaneers’ playoff run combined to bolster TV viewing by 14% on a year-over-year basis.

The power of the NFL playoffs also rippled into the streaming landscape, as the Wildcard game between the Miami Dolphins and Kansas City Chiefs on Peacock generated almost 3.9 billion viewing minutes (including local viewing in Kansas City and Miami), and helped Jan. 13, 2024 take the crown for having the largest daily volume of streaming on record. In total, January 2024 included nine of the top 10 days with the highest streaming volumes ever recorded by Nielsen, with New Year’s Eve 2023 (which was recorded in the December interval) sneaking in at No. 9.

In addition to colder weather, January welcomed the beginnings of new, scheduled drama programming, which accounted for a 20% increase in viewing on broadcast networks. NBC’s Chicago franchise (Chicago Fire, Chicago Med, Chicago P.D.) led the way, representing some of the first “new” scripted content of the broadcast TV season. Combined with a 36% rise in sports viewing, broadcast was able to grow its share of TV by 0.7 share points to end the month at 24.2% of TV. With the arrival of new programming still somewhat limited, however, broadcast viewing was down 20% compared with a year ago.

Cable viewing was up 2.7% in January, but the rise in total TV usage resulted in a 0.3 share point loss to land at 27.9% of TV. Seasonality played a role here, as viewers transitioned away from holiday-themed movies, which led to a decrease of more than 19% in feature film viewership. Comparatively, news viewing picked up, accounting for 19% of overall cable usage, with the Iowa Town Hall on Fox News Channel becoming the only non-sports program to land in the top 10 cable broadcasts (excluding sports commentary). And while sports programming was less prevalent on cable, football games dominated the most-watched programs, including the College Football Playoff game between Michigan and Alabama on New Year’s Day, which took the top spot with 26.1 million viewers.

Like broadcast, streaming also benefited from the return of new scripted programming, with Fool Me Once on Netflix topping the list of most-watched programs with 6.5 billion minutes—the first time an original has topped the streaming charts since Queen Charlotte – A Bridgerton Story did so in May 2023. Bluey, on Disney+, and Reacher, on Amazon Prime Video, were close behind, with 5.5 billion minutes and 4.3 billion minutes, respectively. In total, streaming usage was up 4.1% in January.

At the platform level, YouTube marked its 12th consecutive month as the top streaming service. Peacock saw a 29% spike in usage, driven by NFL playoff coverage, to account for a record 1.6% share of TV. Netflix gained 0.2 share points to end the month at 7.9% of TV, its highest since August 2023, and the 10% increase in Roku Channel usage bumped its share back to 1.1% of total TV.

February, in addition to including viewership for the Super Bowl, will mark the formal start of an abbreviated broadcast TV season, which could offset some of the viewing declines that typically follow the end of the NFL season. With spring not yet on the horizon, the continued arrival of new content across traditional and streaming channels will likely keep audiences engaged until warmer weather arrives.

January data trends with Brian Fuhrer

The Gauge provides a monthly macroanalysis of audience viewing behaviors across key television delivery platforms, including broadcast, streaming, cable and other sources. It also includes a breakdown of the major, individual streaming distributors. The chart itself represents monthly total television usage, broken out into share of viewing by category and by individual streaming distributors.

Methodology and frequently asked questions

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While recent hits like Queen Charlotte, The Blackening and They Cloned Tyrone portrayed diverse friend groups, story lines and genres, many Black audiences view the portrayals of their identities as one-dimensional¹. At least part of that sentiment stems from the perception that on-screen urban portrayals remain far more prevalent than rural and suburban portrayals.

But we know that authenticity involves more than character setting. Dimensions of diversity are numerous, spanning well beyond skin tone and narrative location. Seventy percent of Black audiences who identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community, for example, believe they are misrepresented in media, while 81% of Afro Latinos feel misrepresented¹.

Dimensions of diversity will become even more important considerations in Black representation over time, as the U.S. Census forecasts that one-third of the Black population’s growth through 2060 will come from immigration, adding to the complexity of an already diverse audience. According to our recent Black Diaspora Study, powered by Toluna, an average of 47% of respondents from Brazil, Nigeria and South Africa say they wish they saw more of their identity group on TV.

From a content consumption perspective, the perceptions of representation among Black audiences are critical considerations for the media industry. That’s because they have considerably more media engagement than the general population. They also spend nearly 32% more time with TV each week than the general population². The implications of this level of content engagement spans beyond creators and platforms. They are just as relevant for brands, especially as audiences continue increasing their time with ad-supported video content. 

The right message is critical, and a persona-rich audience highlights the importance of understanding individuals within a diverse community. Our recent Black Diaspora Study found that brands have some ground to gain on this front. That’s because 35.7% of Black Americans believe that brands always represent Black people the same way in advertising, compared with 27.9% among the U.S. general population. The disconnect between how Black audiences feel they’re represented in a campaign could affect the ROI that brands are counting on to fuel growth.

We know that people want to see themselves in advertising, but audiences also want what they see to match what they see through their own eyes. Relevance is critical to engagement across all media types, and global audiences have different perspectives about which media types have the most relevant advertising. Black audiences in Nigeria, the U.K. and South Africa want more relevant ads in traditional and streaming TV content, while Black audiences in Brazil express the most desire for more relevant ads in streaming music.  

Knowing that consumers often seek out brands that champion causes and messages they believe in, relevance, at least to many audiences, has come to represent more than just a brand promise. Relatable value propositions will always be critical, but Black consumers have come to expect that brands support the causes they care about. And when brands don’t measure up, the Black community—especially in Nigeria, the U.K. and Brazil—isn’t afraid to walk away from them.

At its core, media is a means of connecting. The stronger the connection, the greater the engagement. Through that lens, no audience places a higher level of importance on media than Black audiences do. To maintain the engagement of this media-hungry audience, inclusion should be at the forefront of each production’s and brand campaign’s growth and development strategy in this next era of media. In an increasingly fragmenting media world, discerning audiences will be quick to move on when they land on something they don’t like.

For additional insights, download our latest Black Diverse Intelligence Series report: The global Black audience: Shaping the future of media.

Notes

¹Nielsen’s 2023 Black Diaspora Study powered by Toluna

²Nielsen National TV Panel; Q2 2023

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Letters run rampant across media plans, presentation decks and press releases. But as new media types emerge—along with their subsequent short-hand—distinctions get lost in the mix. When talking about online media, three terms in particular get confused. 

We break down the differences between OTT, CTV and streaming, how advertising works on each, and why they’re more critical than ever for marketers to understand.

How are OTT, CTV and streaming defined?

Are there other kinds of streaming TV? 

OTT and CTV sit at the top of their own acronym iceberg. That’s because there are several subcategories marketers should understand. 

Wait, there’s more! Streaming services are now making room for linear TV, too.  Linear TV refers to scheduled programming that is accessed through a satellite or cable network. These services, in particular, are rising in popularity as viewers have to sift through more  content and platform choices than ever.

• Free Ad-supported Streaming Television (FAST) — An app, service or channel that streams scheduled programming—similar to a linear TV experience—through a connected device. FAST services include The Roku Channel, Tubi and Amazon Freevee. 
• Virtual Multichannel Video Programming Distributors (vMVPD) — Services providers that bundle and deliver multiple channels to subscribers over the internet. vMVPD services include YouTube TV,  Sling TV and Hulu + Live TV.

How are ad experiences different across OTT and CTV devices?

Remember, when we talk about CTV, we’re always talking about the TV screen. OTT refers to CTV plus desktop, mobile and tablet streaming. So, naturally, that means CTV devices and all other OTT devices have both distinct and overlapping ad experiences.

Notes

¹As of November 2023, streaming (whether from digital-first or legacy TV companies) accounted for nearly 40% of total TV minutes according to Nielsen’s The Gauge. 

²60% of time spent with TV is on streaming for audiences 18-34 according to Nielsen’s 2024 Upfronts/NewFronts Planning Guide.

³As of 2023, Smart TV penetration is 70.6% among U.S. TV homes according to Nielsen’s National TV Panel

⁴2023 S08 National Survey, September-October

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Media has become omnipresent among many consumers, but engagement is highest among Black audiences, who spend about 12 hours more time with media each week than the general population². In addition to its ability to connect, today’s media landscape offers immense choice—a quality that facilitates stories and experiences that can more completely emulate the complexity of the growing Black community. 

As with all audiences, Black Americans spend the biggest portion of their media time with TV, followed by their smartphones and radio. Unlike other audiences, however, TV plays a much bigger role in their daily lives than the general population. Not only does TV account for a larger share of their media diets, Black adults spend 31.8% more time with TV each week than the general population. 

In total, Black viewers spend almost 55% of their media time with TV: live programming, time-shifted viewing and content they access through TV-connected (CTV)³ devices. Among audiences 65 and older, TV accounts for almost 69% of all media use. Through the lens of total TV usage, Black audiences are the most proportionate with the time they spend with all TV content, embracing everything TV offers them.

Much of the allure of TV content among Black audiences stems from its growing variety and inclusiveness. Across linear channels and streaming services, U.S. audiences now have access to more than 1.1 million unique titles⁴ to choose from, an increase of more than 75% in just three years. In terms of appeal, this massive library is very inclusive of the Black community. In fact, in second-quarter 2023, Black talent had a higher share of screen⁵ than other historically excluded populations.

Yet while Black talent has never been more visible on TV—and well above parity⁶—audience demand suggests there’s room for even more. In fact, Nielsen’s 2023 Black Diaspora Study powered by Toluna found that the desire for more inclusion on TV was higher among Black audiences than any other identity group.

And while U.S. Black audiences are 1.4x more likely than the general population⁷ to say there’s not enough representation, the demand is even higher in other countries. This suggests that while the presence of Black talent may be widespread at a macro level, global survey respondents don’t believe it captures the complex intersectionality across Black communities around the world.

Perhaps more important than representation, however, is the need for diverse, authentic and accurate portrayals in content—something Black audiences feel needs to be improved. While this sentiment is high globally, it’s particularly outsized in Nigeria.

In looking at immigration trends, the sentiment from Nigeria and South Africa is particularly noteworthy. While the Caribbean remains the largest contributor of the rising foreign-born Black population in the U.S., Africa now accounts for the fastest growth, contributing more than 2 million in 2019 alone⁸. Diverse in its own right, that influx comprises individuals from 51 countries⁹, introducing a range of ethnic, linguistic and educational backgrounds.

With such a large infusion of people and cultures expected in the coming decades, complemented by the importance of media within the Black community, the globalization of Black America sets the stage for brands and programmers looking to engage with this diverse audience in a rapidly expanding media landscape.

For additional insights, download our latest Black Diverse Intelligence Series report: The global Black audience: Shaping the future of media.

Notes

¹Pew Research Center; January 2022

²Nielsen National TV Panel; Q2 2023

³CTV refers to any television that is connected to the internet. The most common use case is to stream video content.

⁴Gracenote Global Video Data; October 2023

⁵Share of screen, from Gracenote Inclusion Analytics, is the percentage of an identity group that appears on screen.

⁶Above parity means that the percentage of representation is higher than the percentage of the U.S. Black population, which is 13.6%, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

⁷Nielsen 2023 Black Diaspora Study powered by Toluna

⁸U.S. Census Bureau 2010, 2019 American Community Surveys (ACS), and Campbell J. Gibson and Kay Jung, “Historical Census Statistics on the Foreign-born Population of the United States: 1850-2000“

⁹The Migration Policy Institute; May 2022

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