The NFL continued to drive a resurgence in broadcast viewing in October, with the category growing 4.3% from the previous month. That resulted in 0.6 additional viewership share points, bringing broadcast’s total viewership share to 22.9% for the month – the largest since November 2024.
According to Nielsen, Sundays exhibited the largest viewing shift across categories for the month. Broadcast averaged a 5.3-point gain to climb from an average of 22.0% of TV Monday through Saturday, to 27.3% of TV on Sundays. In contrast, cable and streaming viewership experienced the opposite effect, with watch-time up slightly Monday-Saturday and noticeably lower on Sundays.
Despite a robust month, broadcast sports viewership fell 6.4% compared to September, but still accounted for nearly a third of all broadcast viewing. NFL games on CBS, FOX and NBC claimed the top three overall program rankings with over 20 million viewers apiece, per live +7 data. Meanwhile, broadcast drama viewership grew 28% over September, led by CBS’ “Tracker,” “Matlock” and “NCIS,” ABC’s “High Potential” and NBC’s “Chicago Fire.”
The NFL also gave a boost to streaming, which finished the month on top with a share of 45.7%. It marks an increase of 2.4% month-over-month, outpacing the increase in overall TV usage (+1.3%) to gain a half-point.
Peacock, whose total share reached 1.6% of TV viewership, saw a 19% monthly viewing uptick in October. Its share on Sundays, however, averaged 2.0% of total TV. Paramount+viewership grew 8% compared to the previous month to a total of 2.1%. Its average share of TV increased from 1.2% from Monday to Saturday to 1.6% on Sundays. Amazon’s Prime Video, which is home to Thursday Night Football, gained 3-points against its monthly average on game days, jumping to 6.4% of TV on Thursdays in October. Overall, it finished the month at 3.8%.
While most non-NFL streamers saw decreases on game days, Netflix bucked the trend and grew its share of TV on Sundays. Netflix netted out with 8% of TV in October, but on Sundays specifically, its share climbed to 8.2% of TV. The increase was partially driven by the strength of “Monster: The Ed Gein Story,” which was the most-streamed title of the month with 5.4 billion minutes viewed.
As for cable, the category’s share slipped by 0.1 point to finish with a 22.2% share.
Cable sports viewership increased nearly 50% versus September and represented 14% of the category’s viewing total. Feature films were also a bright spot for cable this month, exhibiting a 7% monthly increase as viewers sought out their favorite spooky movies amid the Halloween season.
Cable news continued to lead cable viewing and owned nearly a quarter of the category’s share despite a 3% drop from last month.
