The return of the college football season marked an uptick in the broadcast TV viewership totals, according to new data released by Nielsen.
During August, broadcast TV saw its share of total television viewership grow to 19.1% — its highest percentage since May — on the back of the college football launch.
The FOX broadcast featuring Ohio State playing Texas drew more than 16 million viewers, while three other broadcasts on ABC (Notre Dame vs Miami, Alabama vs Florida State, LSU vs Clemson) drew more than 10 million viewers.
Cable television also added a full share point compared to the previous month in August, up to 22.5% of the overall share of TV viewing. Nielsen attributes that rise for cable to the college football coverage, specifically pointing out ESPN’s finish for the month.
Cable sports viewership in August was up 30% compared to July, Nielsen shared. Sports viewership represented 9% of all cable viewing during the month.
Streaming viewership declined by 4% in August, while still representing 46.4% of the complete television share. Of that total, 13.1% of viewership took place with YouTube. Meanwhile, Netflix accounted for 8.7%, while Disney (4.6%), Amazon Prime Video (3.9%), and The Roku Channel (2.8%) were the five most popular streaming platforms during the month.
Time spent watching television in August dipped by 2% compared to the previous month.
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