According to Nielsen monthly media distributor rankings for July, YouTube became the first streaming service to command more than 10% of all the TV viewership in the United States. Furthermore, YouTube also became the top distributor for TV programmes for the month as well, dethroning Disney from its lead in the prior months.
Talking numbers, television viewership on YouTube accounted for 10.4% of the entire viewership in July, with Disney coming in second at 9.9%. Compared to June, YouTube’s viewership grew half a percentage point, giving it the lead over Disney. It is speculated that this viewership rise could be driven in large part by kids and teenagers who were on their summer vacation from their school. This user base is a core part of YouTube’s audience, accounting for about 30% of all YouTube viewing on televisions for July and 13% of all television use irrespective of the platform. This marks a new high for this cohort of viewers since the previous year.
Notably, Disney stood second and lost its six months long lead. On the other hand, NBCUniversal (NBCU) had strong numbers for July, with the credit largely going to the broadcast of the Olympics. Although Nielsen’s July measurement period (July 1- July 28) only gave a three-day overlap with the Olympics (July 26- August 11), NBCU still accounted for 9.5% of all TV use, which was up from 8.5% in June.
Additionally, with the exclusive streaming rights for the Olympics, Peacock use rose by 33% over a month and the overall viewership for the NBC broadcast network rose by 24%. The gap in viewership increased further down the rankings with Netflix standing at the fourth position, garnering 8.4%. Furthermore, Fox stood at the fifth position with 7.4% viewership, which it gained due to its coverage of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin ahead of the upcoming US presidential election in November this year. Overall, the report highlights that 14 media companies with at least 1% share in television viewership accounted for 72.3% of all the viewership.