Streaming use has surpassed cable television usage for the first time on the strength of hit shows like “Stranger Things,” “The Bear,” and “The Boys,” according to ratings data firm Nielsen. Audiences watched an average of 190.9 billion minutes of streaming content per week, and over the last year, streaming volume has increased 22.6%.

It’s the culmination of a trend that’s been underway for at least the better part of the last decade and a half, said one media scholar, and an indication of the maturity of streaming.

What You Need To Know

  • Streaming television viewing overtook both cable and broadcast viewership in June for the first time, per Nielsen

  • Streamers like Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and YouTube each gained record shares of television viewership in June

  • This reflects a saturation and maturation of streaming content among U.S. viewers, said one media scholar

  • The next frontier for streaming is live sports, one of the last remaining kinds of programming that viewers will tune in to

Total time spent watching television stayed similar to both June 2022 and July 2021 among Americans, but as broadcast and cable usage dips, streaming services are making up ground. Netflix, Hulu, YouTube and Amazon’s Prime Video each gained record shares of the TV viewing pie.

Streaming is also gaining ground on the strength of live video. Digital multichannel video programming distributors like Hulu Live and YouTube TV and applications from traditional cable providers like Comcast and Spectrum News parent company Spectrum/Charter. These applications now account for 11.2% of streaming use, and 3.9% of total TV use.

Christopher Smith, Clinical Professor of Communication at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School, noted that the slowed growth of services like Netflix are signs of maturity and  streaming.

“As Netflix’s growth slows, it’s indicative that you have a saturation point where households in the U.S. Who are going to go streaming have gone streaming,” Smith said. “It’s not surprising to see that, 15 years on from the inception of the streaming revolution, we’ve reached a point where the majority of households are spending the majority of their time on over-the-top streaming services.”

Though this uptick in streaming comes during summer months, when new content is in a relative trickle and sports miring through their dog days, it’s worth noting that new sports media agreements are increasingly moving to include digital media.

On Thursday, a seven-year, $7 billion agreement was announced between the Big Ten college athletics conference and NBC, Fox and CBS — one which includes agreements to stream games on CBS’s app and NBC’s Peacock platform. In June, Apple struck a 10 year, $2.5 billion deal with Major League Soccer, which goes along with its $85 million annual agreement, according to Forbes, to stream Major League Baseball on Friday nights throughout the season. And this year, Amazon will begin streaming Thursday Night Football games, paying $1 billion per year for an 11 year agreement.

“Now streaming services, particularly those owned by big tech conglomerates, are going to pool their resources and take a bigger bite” into the sports market, Smith said. Sports, he noted, is a huge business, and is among the last things that viewers are willing to tune into live.

“Streaming has been the trend, and now that the market is maturing, the push is going to be getting in on some of the action,” Smith said.