The Media Distributor Gauge, Nielsen

Nielsen has launched The Media Distributor Gauge, a cross-platform view of total TV consumption across broadcast, cable, and streaming aggregated and ranked by a media company. The new insight removes the siloes of traditional television versus streaming and puts all content distributors on a level playing field to allow for an additional perspective of TV viewing today.

With more programs available across platforms, it’s vital for creators, advertisers, and the industry to understand what and where audiences are watching,” said Karthik Rao, CEO of Nielsen. “The Media Distributor Gauge is a perfect complement to 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, which is critical as we head into the Upfront.”

In Nielsen’s first report of The Media Distributor Gauge, 14 media companies achieved a 1.0 percent or greater share of total TV usage. As the top performer in April 2024, Disney accounted for 11.5 percent of TV viewing, with 42 percent of its share attributable to viewing on Disney+ and Hulu. YouTube was the No. 2 overall company with a 9.6 percent TV share in April, followed by NBCUniversal at 8.9 percent, Paramount at 8.8 percent, and Warner Bros. Discovery at 8.1 percent to round out the top five. Netflix was sixth with 7.6 percent of TV, and the second-highest streaming distributor reported.

Across the primary viewing categories:

• Cable was the only category in The Gauge to escape decline as it achieved a second consecutive monthly increase in share, increasing from 28.3 percent of TV in March to 29.1 percent (+0.8 pt.) in April.

Cable sports viewing increased 28 percent vs. March, bolstered by NCAA basketball tournament coverage, NBA playoffs and the NFL draft. Women’s NCAA basketball finals and semifinals coverage accounted for four of the top six cable telecasts in April, and the WNBA draft notched 17th. While cable viewing increased about 1 percent on a monthly basis, a year-over-year comparison shows viewing has declined 8.2 percent vs. April 2023, and its share has lost 2.4 points.

• Broadcast viewing was down 3 percent in April, which equated to a 22.2 percent share of TV (-0.3 pt.). Similar to cable, women’s sports were the bright spot in the broadcast category this month. The NCAA women’s basketball championship game drew 17.6 million viewers on ABC (plus over 1 million more tuned in on ESPN), making it the top broadcast telecast in April by a large margin. The drama genre accounted for 29 percent of broadcast viewing, driven by Tracker, NCIS and Young Sheldon on CBS, and Chicago Fire and Chicago Med on NBC.
• Streaming viewership declined 1.9 percent from March to April, prompting the category to lose just 0.1 share point to account for 38.4 percent of total television. Amazon Prime Video saw the largest increase among streaming services this month with a 12 percent monthly increase for 3.2 percent of TV (+0.4 pt.). Prime Video’s April success was driven by its original series Fallout, which also topped all streaming titles this month with over 7 billion viewing minutes. YouTube, despite a 3 percent monthly decline in viewing, added a 15th month to its streak as the top streaming platform in The Gauge with a 9.6 percent share of TV in April.

BCS Bureau