Nielsen Launches The Media Distributor Gauge, First Convergent TV Comparison of its Kind

Building on Industry-Defining The Gauge(TM), New Insight Shows Total Cross-Platform View of Audience Engagement by Media Company

Disney Tops April Media Distributor Gauge, Claiming 11.5% of Time Spent Watching TV

NEW YORK, May 14, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Nielsen, a global leader in audience measurement, data and analytics, today launched The Media Distributor Gauge, a first of its kind, cross-platform view of total TV consumption across broadcast, cable and streaming, aggregated and ranked by 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 additional perspective of TV viewing today. This new view is being released in addition to The Gauge(TM) report for April 2024, which is detailed below. For an additional breakdown of both reports, check out video commentary from Brian Fuhrer, SVP, Product Strategy and Thought Leadership at Nielsen.

"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, which is critical as we head into the Upfront."

This new insight is created by mapping all the various national media distributors -- including broadcast and cable networks and streaming services -- up to their parent company. Nielsen calculates the total minutes viewed on the TV screen for each network's services and aggregates those totals based on initial distributor mapping, ultimately arriving at a share of total TV usage for each parent company. The minimum reporting threshold for a parent company in The Media Distributor Gauge is a 1.0% share of TV. Similar to the fluctuation of monthly TV usage tracked in The Gauge, rankings within the media company view will also demonstrate shifts that correlate with the seasonality of TV viewing.

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

The Gauge(TM): Nielsen's monthly snapshot of total TV usage in April 2024
April saw record-breaking viewership: the NCAA women's basketball tournament coverage on broadcast and cable, and Amazon Prime Video's new original series Fallout, which set a new high watermark for the streamer as its most successful program to date. From an overall usage perspective, time spent watching TV was fairly flat both month-over-month (down 2%) and on an annual basis (down 0.6%).

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, moving up from
        28.3% of TV in March to 29.1% (+0.8 pt.) in April. Cable sports viewing
        increased 28% 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% on a monthly basis, a year-over-year comparison shows
        viewing has declined 8.2% vs. April 2023, and its share has lost 2.4
        points.


    --  Broadcast viewing was down 3% in April, which equated to a 22.2% 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 on ESPN), making it the top broadcast telecast in April by a large
        margin. The drama genre accounted for 29% 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% from March to April, prompting the
        category to lose just 0.1 share point to account for 38.4% of total
        television. Amazon Prime Video saw the largest increase among streaming
        services this month with a 12% monthly increase for 3.2% 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% monthly decline in
        viewing, added a 15th month to its streak as the top streaming platform
        in The Gauge with a 9.6% share of TV in April.

About The Gauge(TM)
The Gauge(TM) is Nielsen's monthly snapshot of total broadcast, cable and streaming consumption that occurs through a television screen. It was expanded in the April 2024 report to include The Media Distributor Gauge, which reflects total viewing by media distributor across these categories. Underpinned by Nielsen's National TV measurement and Streaming Platform Ratings services, in addition to complimentary insights from its Streaming Content Ratings service, The Gauge provides the industry with a holistic look at the various content audiences are watching. The latest edition of The Gauge is always available at nielsen.com/thegauge.

About Nielsen
Nielsen shapes the world's media and content as a global leader in audience measurement, data and analytics. Through our understanding of people and their behaviors across all channels and platforms, we empower our clients with independent and actionable intelligence so they can connect and engage with their audiences--now and into the future. Nielsen operates around the world in more than 55 countries. Learn more at www.nielsen.com and connect with us on social media (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram).

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nielsen-launches-the-media-distributor-gauge-first-convergent-tv-comparison-of-its-kind-302144341.html

SOURCE Nielsen