YouTube held its grip on the top spot in Nielsen’s Media Distributor Gauge for October, despite strong gains from sports-heavy broadcasters and streamers. The platform accounted for 12.9% of all TV viewing for the month, rising 4% from September as kids and teens logged more screen time during fall school breaks.
Meanwhile, traditional media companies saw a notable lift as the NFL, MLB postseason and a broader broadcast schedule pushed viewership across multiple platforms. Even with that momentum, no distributor was able to surpass YouTube’s lead.
Disney finished second with 11.4% of total TV time after posting the largest share increase of any major distributor. The company gained 0.7 share points as overall viewing rose 7% month over month. Growth was balanced across its linear and streaming properties. ESPN and ABC stations each climbed 9%, while Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ combined for a 7% bump. ABC’s broadcast footprint and Disney’s streaming lineup were the biggest drivers, each adding 0.3 points to the company’s total share.
NBCUniversal followed at 8.6%, holding third place without major month-to-month volatility.
Fox secured fourth place with 8.4%, fueled almost entirely by baseball. Viewership on FS1 surged 285% during the American League Championship Series, contributing 0.4 of Fox’s 0.5 share-point increase. Local Fox affiliates also climbed 12% behind the World Series’ opening games, college football’s Big Noon Saturday and the network’s NFL coverage.
Paramount rounded out the top five at 8.2% of TV usage. CBS affiliates jumped 13% behind a full NFL schedule, while Paramount+ grew 8.3%. NFL games were CBS’ three most-watched programs in October, but the network also delivered the top three non-sports programs across broadcast with “Tracker,” “60 Minutes” and “Matlock.”
Netflix landed in sixth place with 8% of viewing time. Warner Bros. Discovery followed at 5.6%, up 0.2 points on the month. Much of that boost came from the MLB postseason as TBS logged a 93% increase during its exclusive coverage of the Dodgers–Brewers National League Championship Series.
Further down the rankings, Amazon posted 3.8%, The Roku Channel reached 2.8%, and Scripps followed at 1.9%. Weigel Broadcasting drew 1.4%, Hallmark finished at 1%, A+E Networks at 0.9% and AMC Networks at 0.7%.
Hallmark recorded one of the month’s standout performances, with viewership rising 11% thanks to increased movie consumption. The jump added 0.1 share point and pushed the network to No. 12 overall.
Across categories, broadcast television accounted for 22.9% of total viewing in October. Cable followed closely at 22.2%, while streaming remained dominant at 45.7%.
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