Disney, YouTube Lead U.S. TV Viewing Share

Nielsen has launched a new cross-platform media measurement tool, which found that The Walt Disney Company accounted for 11.5 percent of all TV viewing in the U.S. last month, ahead of YouTube at 9.6 percent.

More than 40 percent of Disney’s share was attributable to Disney+ and Hulu, per the Nielsen’s first report of The Media Distributor Gauge. Behind YouTube in third place was NBCUniversal at 8.9 percent, with Paramount at 8.8 percent and Warner Bros. Discovery at 8.1 percent. Netflix fell just outside of the top five at 7.6 percent, with FOX at 6.1 percent. Per Nielsen, 14 media companies reached a 1 percent or greater share of TV usage, including Prime Video, boosted by Fallout, with a gain of 12 percent to reach 3.2 percent of viewing; Scripps (2.3 percent), Weigel (1.5 percent), The Roku Channel (1.4 percent), A+E Networks (1.3 percent), Hallmark Media (1.2 percent) and AMC Networks (1.1 percent).

The Media Distributor Gauge delivers a cross-platform view of total TV consumption across broadcast, cable and streaming, ranked by media company. “With more programs available across platforms, it’s vital for creators, advertisers and the industry at large to understand what and where audiences are watching,” said Karthik Rao, CEO of Nielsen. “The Media Distributor Gauge is a perfect complement to the The Gauge and serves as the first convergent TV comparison of its kind. Together, these reports paint the most complete picture of TV viewing today.”

Overall viewing was down 2 percent on the previous month and 0.6 percent on an annual basis. Cable, however, achieved its second consecutive monthly increase in share, rising to 29.1 percent from 28.3 percent. Sports helped to drive that increase with the NCAA basketball tournament coverage, NBA playoffs and the NFL draft. Broadcast fell 3 percent to 22.2 percent share of viewing, of which 29 percent was on drama series, driven by Tracker, NCIS and Young Sheldon on CBS, and Chicago Fire and Chicago Med on NBC. Overall streaming fell by 1.9 percent to 38.4 percent of total viewing.