NEW YORK—The popularity of NFL games is largely responsible for continued seasonal momentum in TV viewership into October (measured Sept. 29-Oct. 26), according to Nielsen’s The Gauge report, its monthly snapshot of total TV and streaming consumption.
The NFL simultaneously drove a 4.3% increase in broadcast viewing as well as gains for key streaming services, it said.
The impact of NFL coverage in October was most apparent when isolating viewership by day. Sundays exhibited the largest viewing shift across categories for the month, as broadcast averaged a 5.3-point gain to climb from an average of 22% of TV on Monday through Saturday, to 27.3% of TV on Sundays. By contrast, cable and streaming viewership experienced the opposite effect, with the time spent watching up slightly Monday-Saturday and lower on Sundays.
The NFL also drove increases on game days and overall for several streaming services.
Peacock exhibited a 19% monthly viewing uptick in October and represented 1.6% of TV. Its share on Sundays, however, averaged 2.0% of total TV.
Paramount+ viewership was up 8% in total versus last month, and the streamer’s average share of TV increased from 1.2% Monday-Saturday to 1.6% on Sundays, when it simulcasts CBS.
Amazon Prime Video, home of “Thursday Night Football,” gained three points against its monthly average on game days, jumping to 6.4% of TV on Thursdays in October.
Broadcast led all TV categories with a 4.3% monthly viewing gain in October, which resulted in 0.6 additional share points and 22.9% of television—building on its lead over cable and marking its largest share of TV since November 2024 (23.7%).
Despite the performance, broadcast sports viewership was down compared to September (-6.4%) but still accounted for nearly one-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 (L+7). The fall TV season continued to unfold in October as well, as broadcast drama viewership saw a 28% increase over September led by “Tracker,” “Matlock” and “NCIS” on CBS, “High Potential” on ABC and “Chicago Fire” on NBC, to represent the largest monthly gain within the category.
Streaming viewership was up 2.4% month-over-month, outpacing the increase in overall TV usage (1.3%) to gain a half-point and represent 45.7% of TV watch-time in October. Surging football viewing on key streaming platforms helped to fuel the increase, 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 7.9% of TV in October, but on Sundays specifically, its share climbed to 8.2% of TV. This was partially on the strength of its original series “Monster: The Ed Gein Story,” which was the most-streamed title of the month with 5.4 billion minutes viewed.
Cable watch-time in October tracked closely with overall usage (+1.2%), but the category’s share of TV slipped by 0.1 due to rounding to finish with 22.2% of total TV. Cable sports viewership increased nearly 50% versus September and represented 14% of the category’s viewing total.
Feature films were a bright spot for cable, exhibiting a 7% monthly increase in October as viewers sought out their favorite spooky movies amid the Halloween season. News continued to lead cable viewing, owning nearly a quarter of the category’s share despite a 3% drop from the preceding month.
More information is available on The Gauge and Nielsen websites.
