Broadcast TV grows viewership in October, fueled by football and fall dramas

Television viewing in the United States increased in October, with broadcast and streaming platforms gaining share, largely due to National Football League programming, according to Nielsen’s latest edition of The Gauge.

The report, which tracks total TV and streaming consumption through television screens, showed that broadcast television rose 4.3% from September, reaching 22.9% of total viewing. This marks its largest share since November 2024. While sports viewing on broadcast declined 6.4% compared to September, NFL games continued to attract large audiences.

Programs airing on CBS, Fox and NBC were the top three overall broadcasts, each surpassing 20 million viewers in live-plus-seven ratings.

Viewership shifts were most pronounced on Sundays.

Broadcast TV’s share climbed to 27.3%, a 5.3 percentage point increase from its 22.0% average between Monday and Saturday. Meanwhile, streaming and cable shares declined on Sundays, falling to 44.6% and 20.0%, respectively.

Streaming platforms also saw notable gains, particularly services airing NFL games. Peacock’s viewing share rose 19% in October to represent 1.6% of total TV, climbing to 2.0% on Sundays. Paramount+ increased 8% month-over-month and grew from 1.2% Monday-Saturday to 1.6% on Sundays. Amazon Prime Video, which streams “Thursday Night Football,” reached 6.4% of all TV viewing on game days, 3 points above its monthly average.

Overall, streaming usage increased 2.4% from September and made up 45.7% of television time.

Netflix, which does not carry NFL games, gained Sunday share with its original series “Monster: The Ed Gein Story.” The title was the most-streamed program of the month, with 5.4 billion minutes viewed. Netflix reached 8.0% of total TV in October, climbing to 8.2% on Sundays.

Advertisement

Broadcast dramas also contributed to October’s rise in viewership. Shows such as “Tracker”, “Matlock” and “NCIS” on CBS, “High Potential” on ABC, and “Chicago Fire” on NBC helped drive a 28% increase in the drama category over September.

Cable viewing increased 1.2% over the previous month, ending at 22.2% of total TV. The share declined slightly due to rounding.

Cable sports viewership rose nearly 50% in October and accounted for 14% of total cable viewing. Feature film viewing rose 7% amid Halloween programming, while cable news maintained the largest share within the category despite a 3% drop.

The October 2025 reporting period covered the four weeks between Sept. 29 and Oct. 26, aligning with the broadcast calendar.