In the battle for TV viewers, YouTube is riding high. According to Nielsen, the video streaming company scored the second-highest share of TV usage in the US in April 2024, behind Disney but ahead of Netflix.
Disney has found a winning formula. In the United States, consumers have a wide choice of television content on offer, from shows to movies to documentaries. However, when it comes to choosing a content provider, US TV viewers turn first and foremost to Disney.
At least, so reports Nielsen, which recently unveiled “The Media Distributor Gauge”, a system that offers a cross-platform view of total TV consumption (across streaming, cable or linear broadcast) ranked by media company.
“The new insight removes the silos of traditional television versus streaming, and puts all content distributors on a level playing field to allow for additional perspective of TV viewing today,” says Nielsen.
Thanks to its many platforms, including Hulu, ABC and ESPN, parent company Disney topped the ranking in April, with 11.5% of total TV usage.
Internet giant YouTube takes second place with 9.6%, across all platforms. It comes ahead of NBCUniversal (8.9%), Paramount (8.8%), Warner Bros. Discovery (8.1%) and Netflix (7.6%).
Among April's highlights, the NCAA women's basketball championship dominated audiences, as did the Prime Video original series Fallout, which became the platform's most-watched programme and topped all streaming titles with over 7 billion viewing minutes, Nielsen reports.
Streaming dominated viewership with a 38.4% share of total television, ahead of cable (29%) and traditional TV channels (22.2%). Cable was the only category not to suffer a drop in audience, thanks to sports viewing. The NBA playoffs, the NFL draft, and coverage of the women's NCAA basketball finals and semifinals notably kept American viewers watching. – AFP Relaxnews
