Nielsen Media Research recently released its Media Distributor Gauge for the month of November 2024, demonstrating an aggregated look at total television usage by company cutting off on Sunday, Nov. 24. The Walt Disney Company led the group for a second consecutive month, finishing with an 11.1% share of television viewing. Streaming on Disney platforms represented 43% of the total company share, which was measured ahead of the addition of an ESPN tile added to the Disney+ streaming service.
Since the measurement period stopped before Thanksgiving week, ratings for its presentations of college football conference championship games are not included. ESPN and ABC broadcasts of NFL and NBA action are factored into the equation, along with continued success from studio programming and other properties. ESPN attained $3.86 billion in revenue during the last fiscal quarter on $896 million of operating income, the latter of which was down 6% year-over-year. The company is currently preparing to launch its Flagship direct-to-consumer product as the pay TV penetration rate continues to diminish commensurate with cord cutting.
While Disney enjoyed a strong month, YouTube closed the gap by finishing second with a 10.8% share of total television viewership. The platform is the home of NFL Sunday Ticket for a second season and set a new platform record within the Nielsen measurement. YouTube trails Disney by 0.3 share points, cutting its deficit by 0.4 share points (57%) on the month.
FOX Corporation finished fifth in these measurements, accounting for an 8.6% share of total television viewership. The company set a record for its usage during the month through its broadcasts of live sports and coverage of the presidential election. The FOX broadcast channel itself experienced an 8% rise in viewership, fueled by NFL and Big Ten Conference football.
Although the data does not include Thanksgiving week, FOX Sports did account for the most-watched game of the NFL regular season thus far when its holiday broadcast of the Dallas Cowboys matchup against the New York Giants averaged 38.5 million viewers. The World Series, however, was encapsulated within these measurements, which averaged 15.2 million viewers over six games.
Netflix finished sixth on the Media Distributor Gauge with a 7.7% share of viewership ahead of its presentation of an NFL doubleheader on Christmas Day. The audience peaked at 8.5% as Mike Tyson and Jake Paul squared off in a fight from AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Nielsen data for the fight demonstrates that 34% of males in the age 18-49 demographic were tuned into the action, which is about double the percentage of a usual NFL regular-season game. Netflix divulged that the Paul-Tyson fight was the most-streamed sporting event in history and attained an average minute audience of 108 million viewers.
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