How Nielsen's Gauge measures what Americans watch on TV

The Gauge is Nielsen's monthly snapshot of how Americans use their television sets. It reports what share of all TV viewing went to streaming, cable, broadcast and everything else, and what share went to individual streaming services such as YouTube or Disney's streaming platforms. Every figure is a share of time spent watching TV; The Gauge does not measure subscribers or revenue.

Nielsen launched The Gauge with its May 2021 report and calls it “the industry benchmark for tracking how people spend time watching television.” It has tracked the shift to streaming month by month: in May 2025, streaming's 44.8% share passed broadcast and cable combined for the first time, and in August 2026 it reached 49.6%.

Where the numbers come from

The Gauge combines two separately weighted Nielsen panels. Broadcast, cable and total TV usage come from Nielsen's national TV panel. Streaming comes from a subset of homes in that panel that have a Nielsen Streaming Meter. The data is time-period based and uses Live+7 viewing, which Nielsen defines as live television viewing plus viewing up to seven days later for linear content.

Months follow the broadcast calendar, with weeks beginning on Monday, so a Gauge month can be four or five weeks long. The July 2026 report covered four weeks, from June 29 to July 26, and the August 2026 report covered five, from July 27 to August 30. Nielsen's charts carry the label “Total day | Persons 2+”: all hours of the day, and viewers ages 2 and older.

What each category counts

Two rules shape the numbers. Since the February 2023 report, viewing through live-TV streaming apps has counted toward broadcast or cable, not streaming. That is why the YouTube figure in The Gauge refers to YouTube Main, without YouTube TV, and why Hulu's refers to Hulu SVOD, without Hulu Live.

Since June 2023, Nielsen has used its Streaming Content Ratings to find streaming services' original programs watched through cable set-top boxes. That viewing now counts toward streaming and the service that distributed it, rather than toward “other.”

Three reports from one data set

Nielsen publishes The Gauge alongside two related reports. The Media Distributor Gauge ranks media companies by their share of TV viewing: in August 2026, YouTube led, Disney was second with 9.3% and Netflix third with 7.7%. The Ad Supported Gauge, published quarterly, looks at the share of ad-supported TV viewing.

How to read a Gauge share

A share can rise while viewing falls. In August 2026, streaming usage fell 3.2% from July, but total TV usage fell 4.4%, so streaming's share rose 0.6 points to 49.6%. Cable did the same: its usage fell 3% while its share rose 0.2 points to 18.9%. When a share moves, look for the usage change Nielsen reports alongside it.

Seasons matter too. Nielsen describes “streaming’s traditional summer boost,” and live sports move viewers between categories. In July 2026, the World Cup lifted broadcast viewing by 1% in a month when Nielsen says broadcast typically falls 4% to 5%. In August, with the tournament over and children back at school, total TV usage fell 4.4% and sports dropped to less than 9% of broadcast viewing, from 30% in July.

Comparing a month with the same month a year earlier removes much of that seasonal swing. Streaming's 49.6% in August 2026 compares with 46.4% in August 2025, and YouTube's 15.8% with 13.1%. For the full August figures, see our report on the August 2026 Gauge.

What changes from September 2026

Nielsen has said that The Gauge, the Media Distributor Gauge and the Ad Supported Gauge “will undergo a one-time methodology adjustment beginning with the September 2026 measurement interval to align with Nielsen’s TV currency data.” Because of the change, it will publish the September and October reports together later this year.

Nielsen says it is sharing impact data with clients but has not published how much the adjustment moves each share. Until it does, treat any comparison that runs across August and September 2026 with care: part of a change may come from the new method rather than from viewers.

What The Gauge does not tell you

The Gauge measures time spent with the TV set. It does not say how many people subscribe to a service, how much a service earns or how many people watched a particular title. For subscribers and revenue, the companies' own reports are the source, and they do not always say: Netflix's latest quarterly letter, for example, gives no subscriber total. Here is what Netflix reported for the third quarter.