Nielsen: Netflix Jumps to 4th Largest Media Distributor with 8.4% of TV Viewing

Netflix
(Image credit: Netflix)

NEW YORK—Netflix exhibited the largest monthly growth in the June 2024 Media Distributor Gauge report, Nielsen’s cross-platform view of total TV consumption aggregated by media company. 

With usage up 11.8% compared with May, Netflix added almost a full point to its share of total TV viewing and moved from the sixth ranking media company in May, to fourth in June, accounting for 8.4% of TV usage for the month.

Nielsen’s The Gauge previously reported that 40.3% of time spent watching TV in June was attributable to streaming while broadcast and cable lost share.

Pure-play streamers like Netflix and YouTube saw the most benefit from a big streaming month. Time spent watching YouTube on television was up 4.2% in June to push the streamer to nearly 10% of total TV usage, securing another month with the second largest share of TV among media distributors.

While eight of the 14 companies ranked in the Media Distributor Gauge exhibited usage increases this month, affiliate streaming platforms helped rebalance the viewing share for multi-platform distributors across the board. 

With 10.8% of June’s TV viewing time, Disney maintained the top spot among media distributors, driven by a 15% increase in Disney+ usage. 

Another notable growth story was Tubi. It notched a 2.0% share of TV usage in June and a 15% bump in usage, climbed the ranks among its fellow FoxX affiliates and was the company’s second best performer behind FoxX News Channel, helping Fox climb to 6.6% of TV (+0.2 pt.).

NBCU retained its spot as the third ranking media distributor in June with 8.5% of TV, despite a loss of half a share point. The Olympics will certainly put the spotlight on NBCU throughout July and August as their coverage of the biennial event has historically drawn large audiences to all of its platforms.

The lack of sports and drama content on broadcast networks was, however, beneficial to cable entrants A&E, AMC and Hallmark whose affiliates helped fill the gaps by riding increases in viewing across cable’s feature film and drama genres. A&E posted a 1.4% share of TV, up 11.1% and +0.2 share points. Hallmark had a 1.2% share of TV, up 6.1% and +0.1 share points. AMC had 1.1% share of TV, up 7.7%, +0.1 pt.

A comparison with rankings for the previous months can be found here

The measurement interval for June 2024 was 05/27/24 through 06/30/24.

(Image credit: Nielsen's The Gauge)
George Winslow

George Winslow is the senior content producer for TV Tech. He has written about the television, media and technology industries for nearly 30 years for such publications as Broadcasting & Cable, Multichannel News and TV Tech. Over the years, he has edited a number of magazines, including Multichannel News International and World Screen, and moderated panels at such major industry events as NAB and MIP TV. He has published two books and dozens of encyclopedia articles on such subjects as the media, New York City history and economics.