Nielsen has released its latest Media Distributor Gauge data for January 2025, which measures how much of each studio’s content is being watched. According to the latest Media Distributor Gauge, Disney held onto the top spot, beating out NBC Universal and YouTube to take the largest share of television viewing across linear and streaming platforms.

Disney accounted for 12.0% of time spent watching TV in January 2025, locking in its best monthly share of TV among media companies since the report was established in November 2023. Disney’s success was primarily due to the College Football Playoffs, which represented the seven highest rated cable telecasts in January, and which drove an 84% monthly increase in ESPN viewership. Overall, viewing of Disney-owned entities was up 12% versus December to add 0.8 share points.

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 problems with comparing data across different streaming services is that Disney’s 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.

Netflix clinched its highest share of TV to date, with 8.6% of overall viewing in January. The pure-play streamer followed an already robust December with an even stronger January as its watch-time climbed 7%. This was due in large part to “Squid Game”, which generated 9 billion viewing minutes as January’s top streaming title, in tandem with 11 other original series and movies that reached over 1 billion viewing minutes each.

Consistent with the transition away from the holidays, cable movie viewing in January dropped 22% versus December. This contributed to a loss of 0.6 share points for Hallmark, which had previously exhibited two consecutive monthly gains, leading it to finish the month with 1.0% of TV usage.

Roger’s Take: Between Disney’s different channels and streaming services, it’s still grabbing lots of eyeballs, especially with its ESPN content being a great draw during the Football season.   It also shows how the linear studios are still getting plenty of attention from Americans and while Netflix dominates streaming, its not the only way to watch television.

Do you think Disney will be able to continue to hold onto the first place?  Let me know on social media!

Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: Roger@WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk

View all posts