The NFL, MLB and a revitalized broadcast schedule fueled Disney, Fox, Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery’s gains in Nielsen’s Media Distributor Gauge for the month of October. But it was not enough to topple YouTube.
The tech giant continued to maintain the first place spot with 12.9% of total TV, as time spent watching increased 4% during the month (+0.3 share points), driven by double-digit growth among kids and teens as many schools across various parts of the U.S. experienced fall breaks.
Meanwhile, Disney and NBCUniversal held the second and third place spots at 11.4% and 8.6% of TV viewership.
The former had the largest share increase for the month, adding 0.7 share points as its overall viewership climbed 7% month-over-month, which was driven by balance growth across linear and streaming platforms. ESPN and ABC affiliates each saw a 9% viewing increase, while Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ contributed a 7% bump. ABC affiliates and Disney streaming represented the largest share growth contributions, however, each adding 0.3 share points to the distributor’s total.
Fox finished in fourth place of the ranking with a share of 8.4% of TV, propelled by the MLB playoffs, with a massive 285% viewing bump on the strength of FS1’s American League Championship Series coverage, which contributed 0.4 points to Fox’s 0.5-point increase. Fox affiliates rose 12% driven by the start of the World Series (Games 1 and 2), college football’s Big Noon Saturday and NFL games on Sundays.
Paramount rounded out the top five distributors with an 8.2% share of TV, driven by a 13% increase at its CBS affiliates and an 8.3% increase at Paramount+. Although NFL games represented CBS’ top three programs in October, the network owned the top three non-sports programs across the entire broadcast category, with “Tracker,” “60 Minutes” and “Matlock.”
Netflix finished sixth on the list with 8% of TV time, while Warner Bros. Discovery finished at 5.6%, a 0.2 point month-over-month increase. WBD’s viewership for the month was driven by the MLB Playoffs and a 93% viewing increase at TBS for its exclusive coverage of the Dodgers-Brewers four-game National League Championship Series.
The remainder of the list included Amazon at 3.8%, The Roku Channel at 2.8%, Scripps at 1.9%, Weigel Broadcasting at 1.4%, Hallmark at 1%, A+E Networks at 0.9% and AMC Networks at 0.7%.
Hallmark posted the largest increase in watch-time in October as viewership surged 11% month-over-month, driven by an uptick in movie viewership, which led to a gain of 0.1 point and put it in the 12th place spot in the ranking.
Overall, the broadcast and cable categories finished the month at 22.9% and 22.2%, respectively, while streaming finished at 45.7%.
