Thanksgiving Day Helps Lift TV Viewership 5.5% in November Despite Record Low for Cable
Thanksgiving Day was the centerpiece for a 5.5% increase in television usage in November, with audiences watching 103.4 billion minutes during the holiday.
According to Nielsen, linear streaming, or broadcast and cable content viewed through services like YouTube TV and cable provider apps, was a standout during the holiday representing 10.1% of total TV usage — the second-highest level of daily linear streaming ever, surpassed only by Super Bowl Sunday in February. By comparison, linear streaming totaled 7.8% of TV usage across the month.
Additionally, Thanksgiving was the broadcast category’s 10th-most-watched day since the inception of The Gauge in May 2021.
When looking by category, broadcast’s share of viewership increased 7% month-over-month to 23.2% of TV time, outpacing cable for a third consecutive month. Its gains were overwhelmingly driven by a 30% increase in sports viewing, powered by the back-half of the MLB World Series on FOX, plus NFL and college football on ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC.
Sports commanded 37% of all broadcast viewership in November and 6.4% of total TV usage—the highest share for the genre ever recorded in The Gauge — despite accounting for just 3% of broadcast content by duration.
The Thanksgiving Day NFL matchup between the Chiefs and Cowboys on CBS generated 11.7 billion viewing minutes and was the top broadcast telecast of the month. NFL coverage drew more younger audiences into the broadcast ecosystem as well, with viewing for the under-30 group up 21% this month, and viewing for kids 2 to 11 up 27%.
Meanwhile, it was the lowest monthly total to date for cable, whose share dipped 3% to a total of 20.5%. While NFL games on ESPN remained top performers, the category felt the absence of the MLB playoffs, which caused the cable sports genre to retract by 42%. The category was buoyed slightly by holiday spirit, however, as the cable movie genre saw a 22% increase in viewership.
Overall, streaming usage grew 8% in November and captured 46.7% of total TV watch-time. November featured five of the top 10 most-streamed days ever recorded, led by Saturday, Nov. 29, which now ranks second all-time with 47.6 billion minutes streamed, behind the 51 billion minutes clocked on Christmas Day 2024.
YouTube continued to dominate the streaming field with a 12.9% share. In addition to live sports boosting viewership in November, Netflix saw an increase from “Stranger Things” Season 5, which totaled 11.8 billion viewing minutes across the entire month, propelling the streamer 10% month-over-month to an 8.3% share. Despite being viewed live versus on-demand, the end results were nearly identical as each accounted for more than 22,000 years of cumulative television viewing by U.S. audiences.
Disney came in third with an aggregate 4.7% share across Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+, while Prime Video finished in fourth with a share of 3.8%. The Roku Channel also posted a standout performance, rising 9% overall and benefiting from a 23% jump among viewers ages 25–34. The gains lifted the platform to a record 2.9% share of television, putting it in fifth. Tubi also finished the month strong with a share of 2.1%.
In addition to boosting broadcast’s gains, sports also fueled growth at Peacock and Paramount Streaming in November, with the former finishing at a non-Olympic record of 1.9%, while the latter finished at a 2.3% share. The NBCUniversal owned streamer soared 22% on the strength of NFL “Sunday Night Football” coverage and Thanksgiving Day programming, averaging 2.4 million viewers across the day. Meanwhile, Paramount+ jumped 8.4% month over month, driven by NFL games alongside the return of its original series “Landman.”
Rounding out the streamers in last place was Warner Bros. Discovery, which finished the month with a share of 1.3%.
The post Thanksgiving Day Helps Lift TV Viewership 5.5% in November Despite Record Low for Cable appeared first on TheWrap.