Americans ‘Streamed 21 Million Years’ Worth of Video’ in 2023
By Movieguide® Contributor
Nielsen released its latest streaming data, which revealed that “U.S. audiences streamed 21 million years’ worth of video” in 2023.
It’s up from “an incredible 21% increase from the 17 million years worth they streamed in 2022,” Nielsen reported.
“Compared with 2022, however, the writer and actor strikes in Hollywood meant that audiences had significantly less new content to binge throughout much of 2023. That, combined with a focus on content monetization across the streaming landscape, helped inspire new content distribution strategies to keep audiences engaged and loyal amid the range of new service offerings,” the report continued. “According to Gracenote, audiences had 90 different streaming services to choose from at the end of last year, up from 51 at the start of 2020.”
The platforms relied on their existing content (around 1 million titles) in the wake of the strikes. Some shows previously exclusive to one platform have also spread across other platforms.
“There was no clearer beneficiary of this shift than SUITS, which spent a 12-week run in the No. 1 spot on Nielsen’s U.S. top 10 list as a result of its availability on Netflix and Peacock,” Nielsen said. “In total, the program, which originally aired on USA Network from 2011 to 2019, racked up 57.7 billion viewing minutes in 2023—enough to take the crown away from another audience favorite, THE OFFICE, which generated 57.1 billion viewing minutes in 2020 amid pandemic-induced lockdowns.”
“NCIS is the other stand-out example of a show with an entirely new life outside of linear TV, landing in the third spot on the acquired list for the year,” Nielsen continued. “With its availability on both Netflix and Paramount+, NCIS gained 1.3 million viewing minutes from last year to end 2023 with 39.4 billion minutes.”
In a report published on February 2, Forbes said that 99% of American households have at least one streaming subscription as of January 2024. This confirms that “streaming is now the norm rather than the exception.”
In August 2022, Movieguide reported Nielsen’s SVP of Product Management’s streaming predictions:
“By 2024, it’s estimated that streaming platforms will have amassed 210 million subscribers, which represents a staggering number of consumers and a major shift in media habits,” Nielsen’s Kevin Rini, SVP Product Management, said.
However, Netflix alone tops that number with an excess of 50 million. Per Forbes, Netflix is the most subscribed-to service in America, with 260.28 million subscribers across the globe.
Juniper Research predicts that by 2026, there will be 790 million video streaming subscriptions.
Nielsen said, “Looking to the year ahead, industry sentiment suggests that, even with the Hollywood strikes behind us, audiences will continue to see less new content than we saw in 2022—the likely high water mark for scripted programming. Given the massive library of existing video titles—more than 1.1 million across linear and streaming—combined with evolving distribution strategies, audiences will never find themselves with nothing to watch.”
- Content: +3Share:
- Content: +1