YouTube has pulled ahead of Disney in Nielsen’s Media Distributor Gauge for February, with a 2% increase to a record 11.6% share of time spent watching TV during the month.
The milestone marks the Alphabet-owned video platform’s best share of TV to date and the second time its topped Nielsen’s list since its launch in November 2023.
Time spent watching YouTube on TV is up 53% compared to the same month two years ago. The overall viewing bump has been driven by older audiences, with viewing from adults ages 65 and up increasing 96% year-over-year and nearly doubling in the last two years.
The demographic now represents 15.4% of the platform’s viewing, while viewers ages 50-64 accounted for 20.4%, 35-49 accounted for 19.4%, 18 to 34 accounted for 21%, 12-17 accounted for 6.9% and kids aged 2 to 11 accounted for 16.9%.
After its best monthly performance to date in January driven by the NFL and College Football Playoffs, Disney took the second place spot with a 10% share after losing two share points.
Meanwhile, Fox climbed from sixth to third place with a share of 8.3%. Fox-owned entities saw a 5% bump on the Super Bowl, in addition to a 3% bump on Fox News Channel viewership, which drove 37% of the company’s total viewing. Fox Sports 1 viewership was also up 45% compared with January, primarily attributable to NASCAR events.
Rounding out the remainder of the list was Netflix and Paramount with shares of 8.2% each, NBCUniversal with a share of 8.1%, Warner Bros. Discovery with a share of 6.1%, Amazon with 3.5%, The Roku Channel and Scripps with shares of 2.1%, Weigel Broadcasting with a 1.3% share, A+E with a 1.1% share, Hallmark with a 1% share and AMC Networks with a 0.8% share.
Overall, the streaming category added 0.9 share points month-over-month for a total share of 43.5%, its largest to date. By comparison, broadcast (21.2%) and cable (23.2%) combined to account for 44.4% of TV in February.
Netflix had the top streaming program for the month with “The Night Agent” capturing 6 billion viewing minutes, followed by “Bluey” on Disney+ with 4.2 billion minutes.
Among cable viewing, the championship game in the inaugural NHL 4 Nations Face-Off drew the category’s largest audience for the month with 9.3 million viewers on ESPN. Fox News Channel represented the next 13 top cable telecasts, as cable news gained 8% over January to represent 27% of all cable viewing in February.
On broadcast, the Super Bowl and its pregame and postgame programs on Fox were followed by NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” 50th anniversary special with 16.5 million viewers, and The Grammys on CBS with 16.2 million viewers. Broadcast dramas, which accounted for the largest share of broadcast viewing in February (27%), were up 15% versus last month and led by CBS’ “Tracker” (10.6 million) and “Matlock” (9.4 million).
Despite strong showings by the Super Bowl and the other top telecasts, total broadcast viewing fell by 10% to account for 21.2% of TV and cable declined 9% and totaled 23.2% of TV. Sports events viewership fell 54% on broadcast and 42% on cable versus January.
