Streaming Overtakes Cable. NewsWire

NewsWire: 9/10/22

• In July, streaming TV viewership exceeded that of cable TV for the first time. Streaming viewership was particularly high thanks to several high-profile releases on Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime. (Advertising Age)
  
• NH: It’s no secret that streaming has stolen much of linear TV’s thunder. And for the first time, streaming viewership has outpaced that of cable. 
• According to Nielsen, streaming accounted for 34.8% of all TV consumption in July. In comparison, broadcast and cable only accounted for 21.6% and 34.8%, respectively. 

• Time spent streaming totaled 191B minutes a week. That’s a rise of +3.2% MoM and +22.6% YoY. Much of that increase is due to the release of the fourth season of Stranger Things. The show garnered 18B viewing minutes and solidified Netflix (NFLX) as the most-watched streaming platform. 
• Cable viewership fell -2% MoM and -9% YoY. And broadcast viewership fell -3.7% MoM and -9.8% YoY. Much of the decline in cable was due to a drop in sports broadcasts (-15.4% MoM). In the summer, MLB is the only major sport still playing. The decline in broadcast TV was mostly due to the typical summer slump in original series. 
• Broadcast and cable could make a comeback in the fall. The start of football and new seasons of procedural dramas will increase viewership. (See "Without Live Sports, Linear TV Is Dead.") But ultimately, that still might not be enough to overtake streaming. Remember, flagship streaming series like Amazon Prime’s The Rings of Power and HBO Max’s House of the Dragon will continue to drop new episodes through October.

DID YOU KNOW?

• Cities of the Future. Want to live in utopia? That’s what billionaire and former Jet.com CEO Marc Lore is calling Telosa: a “smart city” he plans to build that will cover 150K acres in Nevada, Utah, or Arizona. Lore wants 50K people to be living there by 2030 and 5M by 2050. The first group of residents will be selected by application. In a recent town hall, he detailed his vision for Telosa, which will be divided into 36 different districts with daily necessities that are no more than a 15-minute walk away from offices and living spaces. The city will be governed by “equitism,” which according to Lore is “a reformed version of capitalism.” The cost? A mere $25B, and that's just for the first phase until 2030. Telosa is just one of several lofty efforts underway to build futuristic cities, including Japan’s Woven City (where Toyota will test smart technologies like self-driving cars and robots) and Elon Musk’s Starbase, a hub for SpaceX testing and development in South Texas.