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The Walt Disney Company has extended its lead over YouTube in Nielsen’s Media Distributor Gauge for October, finishing the month with a share of 11.7% in the company’s monthly snapshot of total broadcast, cable and streaming consumption that occurs through a television screen.
The company was boosted by a 7% increase in viewing to ABC broadcast affiliates as a result of NFL and college football, as well as the consistent performance of “ABC World News Tonight,” as well as an 8% bump in ESPN viewership driven by football and baseball – the largest gain among Disney’s cable networks.
Meanwhile, the Google-owned video platform held steady month-over-month with a share of 10.6%.
Rounding out the top five was NBCUniversal with a 9.2% share, Paramount with a 8.7% share and Fox with a record 8.4% share. The milestone for Fox was the second straight month that it notched the largest monthly increase among all reported media distributors, with overall viewing up 16% in October, or +1.1 percentage points.
Fox broadcast affiliates were up 16% in October, driven by sporting events including NFL and college football, MLB playoffs and World Series Games 1 and 2. From a cable network perspective, election-related coverage boosted Fox News Channel to a 12% viewing increase in October, and FS1 shot up over 260%, due primarily to its MLB National League Championship Series games. Fox also benefited from a 2.5% lift in Tubi viewing.
Among the 14 companies reported in the Media Distributor Gauge, nine of them exhibited monthly shifts of +/- 0.1 share point or less in October. The Roku Channel was an exception, however, tallying the second largest monthly increase among distributors with a 12% gain over September to lift the FAST service to a platform-best 1.8% share of TV.
Netflix finished the month with a share of 7.5%, followed by Warner Bros. Discovery with 6.7%, Amazon with 3.6%, Scripps with 2%, Weigel Broadcasting with 1.2%, A&E Networks with 1% and AMC Networks with 0.9%.
