This is a quick snapshot of TV by the numbers for the week of Sept. 7-13, revealing the most-watched shows and networks using glass-level data from Inscape, and the top shows and networks by TV ad impressions with insights via iSpot.tv.
Most-Watched Shows and Networks
Via Inscape, the TV data company with insights from a panel of more than 16 million active and opted-in smart TVs. Data is linear, live TV only and includes all episode types (new and reruns). Rankings are by percent share duration (i.e., time spent watching).
Looking at shows, of all the minutes watched by smart TVs that Inscape measured in all dayparts, an impressive 6.96% of the time was spent on NFL games. NBC captured the largest percent share duration of NFL games (3.10%), followed by Fox (3.05%). The No. 2 program for watch-time last week was the NBA (2.30%), with 2020 U.S. Open Tennis snagging third place with 0.84% of time spent.
On the network side of things, thanks in part to the NFL’s return, broadcast networks NBC (8.70%) and Fox (6.84%) edged out longtime ranking leader Fox News (5.65%) for watch-time last week, while CBS remained in fourth place and ABC slipped to No. 5 with 5.05% share duration.
Top Shows and Networks by TV Ad Impressions
Via iSpot.tv, the always-on TV ad measurement and attribution company. Rankings are by TV ad impressions, for new episodes only.
NFL games dominated when it came to TV ad impressions, with over twice as many (8 billion) as the No. 2 program (NBA with 3.6 billion). College football was the only other program last week to score over 1 billion impressions (1.7 billion). America’s Got Talent was the only non sports/news show to make the top 15.
Thanks to an assist from the NFL, NBC snagged first place for networks with 7.5 billion impressions, surpassing longtime chart-topper Fox News (4.9 billion). Fox jumps into third place (4.3 billion) after not being in the top 25 for weeks, while CBS and ABC were nearly tied for impressions (3.8 billion), putting them in fourth and fifth places, respectively. With sports now going in full force, seven sports networks made the ranking: ESPN, NBC Sports, ESPN2, Golf, NFL Network, Fox Sports 1 and MLB Network.
