Broadcast viewing nearly always falls off in June after the traditional TV season ends, but the summertime blues are particularly pronounced this year.
For the first time since Nielsen began tracking TV use by platform four years ago — and probably the first time ever, considering broadcast’s dominant place for much of television history — over-the-air networks accounted for less than 20 percent of viewing in June. The ratings service’s monthly Gauge rankings show broadcast at 18.5 percent for the month, down from 20.1 percent in May.
TV use across all platforms grew by 3 percent in June compared to a month earlier, with increases among kids and teenagers driving most of that increase as summer breaks from school kicked in. People aged 6-17 spent 27 percent more time on TV screens in June than they did in May, with streaming accounting for two thirds of their viewing. Accordingly, streaming set another monthly high with 46 percent of all use and beat the combined total for broadcast (18.5 percent) and cable (23.4 percent) for a second straight month.
Netflix saw the biggest bump in viewing, growing by 13.5 percent month to month on the strength of shows like Ginny & Georgia — June’s most streamed series with 9.9 billion minutes of viewing — new acquisitions Blindspot and Animal Kingdom and the final season of Squid Game, which premiered just before the end of Nielsen’s June reporting period (which ran from May 26-June 29). The bump pushed Netflix’s share of all TV use up to 8.3 percent, vs. 7.5 percent in May. A new season of Love Island USA also drove 13.4 percent more viewing to Peacock, which added 0.1 to its share of all TV use for the month. YouTube continued its growth spurt as well, rising 0.3 to 12.8 percent of all viewing.
Among the bright spots for traditional TV were the NBA playoffs and finals — the latter accounting for the top seven broadcast audiences of the month — and a 12 percent bump in cable news viewing.
Nielsen’s Gauge numbers for June 2025 are below.
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