Topline
With the NFL regular season making its much-anticipated return, September witnessed an unprecedented surge in broadcast television viewership, according to fresh Nielsen data. NFL games dominated the top 15 broadcast telecasts and the leading five cable telecasts for the month.
Nielsen reported a notable 20% increase in broadcast viewership from September to October, marking the most significant monthly rise in any category of TV usage since the company began tracking it in 2021.
For the first time, broadcast television claimed 22.3% of all TV usage in September, surpassing cable viewership.
This historic leap is primarily due to NFL and college football, as sports viewership skyrocketed to account for 33% of all broadcast viewing in September, an impressive jump from 11% in August, Nielsen confirmed.
Fifteen NFL games aired on CBS, FOX, and NBC emerged as the most-watched broadcast programs during the month, each outperforming August’s top telecast, which was the Ohio State vs. Texas college football game that drew 16.6 million viewers.
In September, the top five cable telecasts featured four Monday Night Football games on ESPN and the season’s first international NFL game, which aired on the NFL Network.
The top five cable telecasts for September included four Monday Night Football games on ESPN, and the first international NFL game of the season on NFL Network.
The return of football also brought Amazon Prime its most-watched Thursday Night Football game ever—the Washington Commanders-Green Bay Packers matchup generated over 3 billion minutes viewed on Sept. 11.
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Tangent
Fueled by the release of the second half of season 2, “Wednesday” on Netflix was the most-watched show of the month across any streaming platform. The show garnered more than 7 billion viewing minutes across the month, nearly doubling the viewership of the record-breaking “KPop Demon Hunters” in the second-place spot.
Surprising Fact
The start of the school year has led to a drop in streaming viewership among school-aged children between the ages of 6 and 17. Time spent watching TV was down 9% among kids and teens from July to August, and streaming use among school-aged viewers dropped 8% between those two months. From August to September, a sharp decline in YouTube viewing among kids and teens led to a 2% drop in overall streaming on the platform. YouTube remained the most-watched streaming platform, however, and represented 12.6% of all TV viewing in September.
