Nielsen's story that streaming had finally surpassed both cable and broadcast viewing according to its proprietary The Gauge got a lot of press last week. One problem with it is the research has told a different story for the past six years: Parks Associates reported back in 2016 that Internet video over-took broadcast video and accounts for the lion’s share of all video consumed.

Recently it shared that 72% of consumers report regularly using multiple platforms to consume video and over 40% view video on all tested platforms – TV and TV-connected devices, mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, and PCs.

The other problem is Nielsen tells us its total viewing hours are derived from a subset of Streaming Meter-enabled TV households within the National TV panel. That means they do not take into account streaming usage on tablets, desktop or phones. 

So this story from The Gauge is an imperfect one, so that the “the first time [streaming] has also surpassed cable viewing” is misleading. The TV no longer remains the center of households filled with smartphones, desktop computers, tablets, smart speakers, and video calling devices.

It’s worth briefly discussing this misperception in light of recent essays I’ve written about connected TV ad spend and Automatic Content Recognition, and even the eMarketer data about linear ad spend that I frequently cite. It is lingering in the marketplace a bit too long that it is distracting from some important trends.