Disney Retakes Top Spot In Nielsen’s Media Distributor Gauge
Nielsen has released its latest Media Distributor Gauge data for September 2024, which takes a look at how much of each studio’s content is being watched. According to September’s Media Distributor Gauge, Disney has once again taken the top spot, beating out NBC Universal and YouTube, to take the largest share of television viewing across linear and streaming platforms.
While Universal was able to top the chart in August with their Olympics coverage, but now with the return of the NFL and NCAA football, Disney along with some other media companies got a boost in viewership.
Disney reclaimed the top spot with 11.3% of TV and marked the third consecutive monthly lead-change in Nielsen’s Media Distributor Gauge. Disney notched a 17% viewing increase in September and added 1.8 share points over August—the largest share increase among all reported distributors. Disney’s 17% growth can be attributed to gains from ESPN (+101%) and ESPN2 (+165%), and its ABC broadcast affiliates (+25%).
Ultimately, as viewers shifted their focus to football in September, eight of the 14 reported media companies experienced viewing decreases this month, including NBCU. Despite falling 4.1 share points in the wake of a record breaking August powered by the Olympics, NBCU would have likely exhibited growth similar to the aforementioned distributors. They still managed to finish in the top three, however, and came in behind YouTube with 9.3% of TV.
As viewing habits continue to exhibit the impacts of seasonality and sports, a maximized multi-platform approach to audience engagement, like we’ve seen in August and September, will be an important strategic mechanism in the months ahead.
Unlike most viewership charts, which usually just focus on either streaming or linear viewing, this data highlights how, when combined, the legacy media studios are still more popular than Netflix, which dominates the streaming viewership, but has no linear viewership.
One of the biggest issues facing Disney is how its content is spread out across different platforms like Hulu and Disney+, and channels like ABC, FX, National Geographic, etc, but this data pulls all of that together, showcasing the overall picture for Disney.
Roger’s Take: Following last month’s drop into third space, Disney has reclaimed its top spot, highlighting how much content people actually watch from across all of its different brands. It also highlights the importance of the return of American Football.
Do you think Disney will be able to continue to hold onto the first place? Let me know on social media!