Streaming overtakes cable and broadcast as the most-watched form of TV

A new king now reigns in TV land.

Streaming has officially surpassed broadcast and cable as a share of total television viewing, according to Nielsen data.

In May, streaming accounted for 44.8% of viewership, while broadcast (20.1%) and cable (24.1%) together represented 44.2% of overall tune-in.

“While many have expected this milestone to have occurred sooner, sporting events, news and new-season content have kept broadcast and cable TV surprisingly resilient,” Brian Fuhrer, senior vices president at Nielsen, said in a video for Nielsen’s The Gauge monthly viewership report. “The trend, however, has been very consistent.”

While Netflix has boasted the most overall TV usage for four years straight, YouTube has now seen four straight months of TV share increase, Nielsen said. The platform, owned by Google and its parent company Alphabet, boasted the highest share of TV consumption among all streamers in May, with a 12.5% share. Rounding out the top five were Netflix, Disney-owned platforms including ESPN and Hulu, Amazon’s Prime Video, and the Roku Channel.

The three largest so-called free, ad-supported services, or FAST channels — Paramount’s Pluto TV, the Roku Channel and Fox’s Tubi — combined for 5.7% of total TV viewing in May, more than any individual broadcast network.

Streaming’s overall share is likely to remain neck and neck with traditional TV viewership for some time before it eventually surpasses it permanently in the near future, Nielsen said.