‘The Office’ by far the most broadcast TV show in 2020: Nielsen

In the midst of the acceleration of the streaming wars in 2020, one thing was clear: “The Office” was far above any other TV program available on the main pay-video platforms.

Last year, Americans cumulatively broadcast more than 57 billion minutes of “The Office,” the favorite comedy that aired for nine seasons on NBC, on Netflix, according to data released Tuesday by Nielsen. But Netflix will not benefit from the Dunder Mifflin gang catalog this year: as of January 1, all seasons of “The Office” have been moved exclusively to NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming service.

The next biggest show was the previous seasons of “Grey’s Anatomy”, also on Netflix, with an estimated 39.4 billion minutes broadcast. In fact, Netflix had a lock on the top 10 most viewed licensed TV shows, by Nielsen, with previous seasons of “Criminal Minds”, “NCIS”, “Schitt’s Creek”, “Supernatural”, “Shameless”, “New Girl, ”“ The Blacklist ”and“ Vampire Diaries ”.

Please note that the ratings are based on the Nielsen SVOD Content Ratings service, which measures only four services: Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu and Disney Plus.

Among the original series on Nielsen’s SVOD service tracks, Netflix took nine out of 10 places, with “Ozark” first. This was followed by “Lucifer”, “The Crown” and “Tiger King”. The only non-Netflix show was Disney Plus’ “The Mandalorian,” with the success of Star Wars coming in fifth.

While “The Office” and other older TV shows recorded the most views in 2020, these titles typically include more episodes than the newer originals, so it’s no surprise that they generate more streaming volume overall. For example, viewers in the United States watched 30.5 billion minutes of “Ozark” during 2020, which represented a total of 28 episodes. The more than 57 billion minutes of “The Office” covered 192 episodes.

Meanwhile, on the film front, the early release of Disney Plus’s “Frozen II” topped the most broadcast list, followed by “Moana” on Disney Plus and “Secret Life of Pets 2” on Netflix.

A caveat about these numbers: Nielsen’s estimates are estimated based on viewing on connected TVs, excluding mobile devices and computers. Streaming providers do not normally disclose display numbers. When Netflix announces the display, for example, it uses a proprietary metric that counts how many subscribers have watched a minimum of two minutes of a title.

Also on Tuesday, Nielsen announced the launch of Theatrical Video On-Demand (TVOD), a measurement service that tracks movie releases that are available directly for consumers to rent or buy on demand through streaming and TV platforms pay. Nielsen did not specify which platforms would be included in the TVOD measurement service or when exactly it would be launched.

2020 main stream content: series acquired

Main 2020 streaming content: original series

Main 2020 streaming content: movies

Source: Nielsen SVOD Content Ratings (Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney Plus and Hulu), Nielsen National TV Panel, US Viewing through Television. People over 2 years old in the USA, total minutes viewed during 2020 (December 30, 2019 to December 27, 2020)