TV viewership in April held steady compared to the previous year, driven by the continued strength of broadcast dramas, the conclusion of the NCAA Basketball Tournament, the Masters golf tournament, the start of the NBA Playoffs and the seasonal shift to spring and warmer weather.
YouTube’s share of TV viewing climbed 0.2 percentage points to 13.4% in April, maintaining its lead in Nielsen’s monthly gauge reports. Trailing behind the Alphabet-owned video platform was Disney with a share of 10.3% and NBCUniversal/Versant with a combined 8.2%. Rounding out the top five was Paramount and Netflix with shares of 7.9% and 7.8%, respectively.
The remainder of the list included Fox at 6.9%, Warner Bros. Discovery at 6%, Amazon at 4.3%, The Roku Channel at 3%, Scripps at 1.7%, Weigel Broadcasting at 1.4%, A+E Network at 0.9%, Hallmark at 0.8% and AMC Networks at 0.6%.
Overall, streaming held steady at a 47.6% share of TV viewing in April.
Prime Video’s share of TV viewing increased by 0.4 percentage points to 4.2%, which was driven by its slate of 22 NBA games — including the Play-In tournament and start of the Playoffs — and the premiere of its final season of “The Boys.” The New York Knicks’ first playoff game against the Atlanta Hawks on April 18 stood as its most-watched game of the month. Also included in Amazon’s 4.3% share figure was viewing on Twitch.
Fox’s Tubi saw viewership climb 3% in April, resulting in a platform-best 2.3% share of television for the ad-supported streamer. Meanwhile, WBD’s streaming division represented 1.5% of TV viewing, propelled by the month’s most-watched streaming title, “The Pitt,” which totaled 4.5 billion viewing minutes on HBO Max.
Elsewhere, Disney’s streaming division accounted for 5% of TV viewership, while Paramount’s made up 2.1% and Peacock came in at 1.2%.
Meanwhile, broadcast represented 19.9% of TV viewing in April — 12% of which was driven by sports, which topped the month’s broadcast telecasts with the final round of the Masters Tournament on CBS. Broadcast dramas represented the most-watched genre within the category at 28%, led by CBS’ “Tracker” and “Marshals” and ABC’s “High Potential.”
And cable rode the momentum of March Madness into April, gaining 0.2 share points to finish the month with 21.6% of TV viewing — its largest share of television over the past six months.
The NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship game that aired across TBS, TNT and TruTV on April 6 drew April’s largest cable audience. The cable sports genre represented 9% of cable viewership, while cable news remained the most watched cable genre with 29% of cable viewership.
