FX Networks chairman John Landgraf at TCA in Pasadena, Calif.
Nielsen: Disney Edges YouTube in December Household TV Usage
January 28, 2025
Disney’s expansive media distribution across the household television again topped Nielsen’s monthly media distributor gauge chart — but just barely.
Disney claimed the largest share of TV viewing for a fourth straight month with 11.2% of total usage in December — just 0.1% ahead of YouTube with 11.1%.
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Disney’s 6% month-over-month gain was fueled by strong performances across its cable networks. Notable contributors included FX with a 45% surge, and basic cable channel Freeform, which nearly doubled its audience with its holiday movie marathons. Disney also benefited from football-driven gains on Hulu and ESPN, as well as from the animated children’s series “Bluey” on Disney+, which was the second-most watched streaming title of the month with 5.3 billion total viewing minutes.
Time spent watching YouTube on TV was up 7%, leading the streaming service to its best monthly share of total TV time. This is YouTube’s 10th consecutive month ranking as one of the top two media distributors.
Netflix exhibited a 14% monthly uptick in viewing versus November, leading it to notch 8.5% of total TV watch-time and tie its previous platform high. Netflix’s gains were driven by the two Christmas Day NFL games, in addition to the nearly 15 billion viewing minutes accumulated by titles Carry-On, “Squid Game” and “Virgin River,” among others.
While Fox delivered the most-watched TV program — the Thanksgiving Day NFL game between the Cowboys and the Giants, which drew 38.5 million viewers and 8.2 billion viewing minutes — December totals were hard to match with the company-best record set in November due to the World Series and presidential election coverage. Without them there was a 14% drop in viewership at Fox to have it finish December with 7.1% of TV viewing.
Amazon reached a platform best 4% share of TV viewing, as it benefited from hosting five NFL Thursday Night Football games, including one on Black Friday, during the December interval, as well as from its holiday movie Red One, which racked up 5.6 billion viewing minutes as the month’s top streaming title.
The Roku Channel experienced a 10% increase in TV viewing, lifting it to a platform record of 2% of total TV time and climbing from 10th to 9th place among media companies. Meanwhile, AMC was up 24% in December on the strength of its month-long Christmas movie marathons.