Disney claimed the largest share of TV viewing for the fourth consecutive month in December 2024, per Nielsen’s latest Media Distributor Gauge report.
After taking the largest share of TV viewing for September, October and November, the Walt Disney company accounted for the biggest share of TV viewing in December with an 11.2% share, improving slightly from its 11.1% share in November.
Nielsen attributes the 6% increase in viewing to surges across cable, including FX’s 45% bigger audience, Freeform’s nearly double audience during its 25 Days of Christmas movie event as well as ESPN’s football audience. As usual, “Bluey” on Disney+ was widely watched, clocking in as the second-most watched streaming title of the month with 5.3 billion total viewing minutes in December.
Disney narrowly beat YouTube, which scored a 11.1% share of TV viewing in December — up 7% from the previous month — marking a record share of TV usage for the platform. Netflix and Amazon also saw company-best shares in December, with Netflix growing 14% to reach a 8.5% share, while Amazon scored a 4% platform share.
Netflix’s two Christmas Day NFL games contributed to its growth alongside its popular releases “Carry-On,” “Squid Game” and “Virgin River,” which scored a cumulative 15 billion viewing minutes. Likewise, Amazon benefitted from the five NFL Thursday Night Football games Prime Video hosted during the December interval, as well as the release of Dwayne Johnson-led “Red One,” which was the streamer’s most-watched title during the month with 5.6 billion viewing minutes.
Paramount took the third largest TV viewing share with 9.2%, while Netflix came next with a 8.5% share and NBCUniversal took a 8.2% viewing share. Fox took the sixth largest share with 7.1% and likely saw a boost from hosting the Thanksgiving Day NFL game between the Cowboys and the Giants, which was the month’s watched program, which scored 38.5 million viewers and 8.2 billion viewing minutes.
Despite this milestone, Fox failed to outpace the company-best record it set in November, which was driven by Fox News’ presidential election coverage and the World Series, prompting Fox’s viewership to drop by 14% in December.
