Free streaming services are becoming even more popular as cord cutters look for cheaper options. According to Nielsen’s monthly platform rankings, Tubi, Pluto TV, and The Roku Channel are once again all in the top 11 most popular streaming services in September 2023. This comes as Cabel TV viewing is once again below 30% of all TV viewing.
With the start of school and fall activities streaming over all saw a 1.7% drop in September 2023. Only three services Amazon led by its NFL Football and two free services, Tubi along with The Roku Channel saw growth.
“Streaming viewing declined for the second month in a row, but the Suits phenomenon continued, racking up more than 8 billion minutes of viewing in September. And as it was on broadcast and cable, sports was a factor for Prime Video, which saw a 7.5% bump in viewership as a result of NFL Thursday Night Football and the second season of The Wheel of Time. With the return of TNF on Prime, the two Thursdays with games represented the highest viewing days for Prime Video. Tubi and the Roku Channel were the other two streaming services to see viewing lifts in September. And with the increase in broadcast viewing, it comes as no surprise that linear streaming climbed to represent 5.7% of TV usage—a high water mark for 2023 so far.” Nielsen said in their press release.
According to the report from Nielsen, Tubi had 1.3 percent of all streaming traffic, The Roku Channel had 1.1 percent, and Pluto TV had 0.8 percent of all streaming traffic. Pluto TV was the first free ad-supported streaming service to be ranked in the top 10 by Nielsen.
Here Are The Top 10 Streaming Services:
YouTube: 9.0 percent
Netflix: 7.8 percent
Hulu: 3.6 percent
Prime Video: 3.6 percent
Disney+: 1.9 percent
Max: 1.2 percent
Tubi: 1.3 percent
Peacock: 1.1 percent
Roku Channel: 1.1 percent
Paramount+: 1.0 percent
Pluto TV: 0.8 percent
So what is helping TV viewing grow? Sports is in short as sports is once again the main thing people watch live on TV. With the start of fall football Broadcast TV airing these games saw a jump.
Slowly Americans are finding the best new shows are online not on cable TV. With the current actors strike, that may never be more true than this fall as many networks look at reruns, reality TV, and airing shows from their streaming services to fill the void.