YouTube Claims No. 1 Spot Among TV Distributors in July

Rick Porter
·2 min read

YouTube became the first streaming service to command more than 10 percent of all TV use in the United States in July. That number also is good for another first: YouTube was the top distributor of TV programming for the month, dethroning Disney and becoming the first streaming-only company to lead Nielsen’s media distributor rankings.

Viewing of YouTube on televisions accounted for 10.4 percent of all TV usage in July, Nielsen says, moving it ahead of Disney (9.9 percent) in the Media Distributor Gauge rankings. YouTube’s share of viewing rose half a point from 9.9 percent in June, driven in large part by kids and teenagers on summer break from school. People age 17 and under accounted for 30 percent of all YouTube viewing on TVs for the month and 13 percent of all TV use regardless of platform — the highest mark for that cohort since a year earlier.

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NBCUniversal also had a strong July thanks to the start of the Olympics. Although just a few days of the Paris games happened during Nielsen’s July measurement period (which ran from July 1-28), they helped NBCU account for 9.5 percent of all TV use, up from 8.5 percent in June. Peacock use rose by 33 percent month to month, and the NBC broadcast network improved by 24 percent.

Disney, which had been the largest distributor for the first six months of 2024, fell back one spot to second place with 9.9 percent of TV usage. Netflix (8.4 percent) remained in fourth place, and Fox (7.4 percent) moved up to tie Paramount for fifth with growth from Fox News and Tubi.

As with the past two publicly released Media Distributor Gauges, 14 media companies had at least 1 percent of TV use in July; they accounted for 72.3 percent of all TV viewing. July’s rankings are below.

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