Report: Cable & broadcast news viewing spikes 54%
March 18, 2022
Nielsen has announced that The Gauge, its monthly total TV and streaming snapshot, revealed that in February 2022, both cable and broadcast news viewing in the US spiked as Russia invaded Ukraine.
Cable viewing increased 54 per cent during the last week of February, helping news gain one-fourth of all cable consumption, representing a 16.5 per cent overall month to month increase. Comparatively, broadcast news increased by 6 per cent to 15 per cent in the final week of the month, elevating the genre to the second-largest behind drama.
Broadcast television gained its highest weekly share of viewing since October 2021 at 28.7 per cent, primarily off the heels of a compelling Super Bowl, which accounted for 39 per cent of total broadcast viewership during the week of February 7th. Overall sports programming viewership increased during the Winter Olympics, capturing 20 per cent and 23 per cent of total broadcast usage during the weeks of February 1st and February 14th, respectively. Despite the sports-induced broadcast viewership increase seen in February, total television viewing was down 5.7 per cent from January, below the 5 per cent average decrease over the past five years.
The “Other” category—which includes and is reflective of video game usage—gained almost a full share point due to increased time consumers spent gaming during the Presidents’ Day holiday and other winter breaks in the US.