MTV’s 2016 Video Music Awards drew just 6.5 million viewers on TV, down from 9.8 million a year ago, but consumption via streaming jumped.
Like last year, the award show was televised on 11 of Viacom’s cable networks. But young viewers who wanted to seek Beyonce’s live performance appeared to turn to broadband devices to watch the show rather than gathering around a TV set.
Related: Sean Atkins May Have the Hardest Job In TV
MTV said the VMAs attracted 61.8 million video streams on Sunday, up 70% from 36.8 million the day of the show in 2015. The number of streams on Facebook rose 938% to 45.8 million on Facebook, the network said.
The VMAs was the most social show of the night, accounting for 90% of all of the TV related social media chatter for the evening. It was also the top social show of the week.
Related: Upfront 2016--Atkins Looks to Bring Buzz Back at MTV
MTV and Viacom have been battling eroding ratings as young viewers increasingly consume their entertainment on platforms and devices not included in traditional audience measurements.
For this year’s VMAs, Viacom’s ad sales team created thousands of pieces of branded content that allowed sponsors to connect via digita and social with fans who might not see traditional commercials.
