Disney retained its spot atop the rankings of TV distributors in January, recording its highest share of viewing in the year-plus Nielsen has been compiling such figures. Netflix also hit its best mark so far.
For the January reporting period (which ran from Dec. 30-Jan. 26), Disney outlets captured 12 percent of all TV use in the United States. That’s the most for the company in the past 15 months, when Nielsen started compiling TV usage by distributor. Disney’s previous high was 11.8 percent, which it reached twice; the highest figure for any media company was 13.4 percent for NBCUniversal in August 2024, powered by the Summer Olympics.
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Disney improved by 0.8 points vs. December 2024, thanks in large part to the College Football Playoff on ESPN. The seven games that took place in January accounted for all seven of the top cable telecasts of the month.
Netflix also had its best tally so far with 8.6 percent of TV use, ranking fourth overall behind YouTube (10.8 percent) and Paramount (8.9 percent). The latter two fell by a few tenths of a point each from the previous month, while Netflix edged up from 8.5 percent in December on the strength of Squid Game and several other titles that recorded at least 1 billion minutes of streaming time.
Fox (7.6 percent, up 0.5 points) and Warner Bros. Discovery (6.1 percent, up 0.1) also improved, aided by double-digit viewing gains for Fox News (up 29 percent) and CNN (up 39 percent) compared to December. MSNBC also grew by 26 percent, but parent company NBCUniversal slipped a tenth of a point overall to 8.1 percent.
January’s Media Distributor Gauge numbers are below.
