NBCUniversal Wins Gold In Nielsen’s Media Distributor Gauge

NBCUniversal took a commanding lead in TV watch-time among media companies in the August 2024 Media Distributor Gauge report, Nielsen’s monthly view of total television consumption by media company. On the strength of its presentation of the Paris Olympics, NBCU added 3.9 points to notch 13.4% of TV usage in August, setting both a personal-best and a new record for the Media Distributor Gauge (since calculations began in November 2023). 

NBCU’s stable of entities exhibited double-digit viewership growth across the three main channels that televised Olympics coverage: USA Network viewership jumped 47%, Peacock streaming was up 39%, and viewing across NBC broadcast affiliates rose 62%. Additionally, the Democratic National Convention also provided a boost for NBCU in August, as MSNBC’s coverage of the four-day DNC event lifted network viewership by 43% compared to July levels.  

In addition to NBCU, two more companies in the Media Distributor Gauge exhibited positive share changes in August. After topping all media distributors in July, YouTube’s watch-time was up 2% in August to finish the month with 10.6% of TV—another high-water mark for the streaming platform. The other to record growth was The Roku Channel, which received a 3% bump in viewership and added one-tenth of a share point for a platform-best 1.7% of TV usage.

Combined with the fact that audiences turned their attention to the Olympics, many of the remaining media companies were affected by typical August viewing trends in an otherwise atypical month of TV consumption. With new seasons of football and broadcast programming on the horizon, Disney, Paramount and FOX all experienced the end-of-summer lull in viewership in August, and finished with 9.5%, 7.1% and 6.0%, respectively. 

Few measurement intervals are likely to rival the impact the Paris Olympics had on TV consumption throughout July and August. While the Games are undoubtedly unique from a cultural and TV programming perspective, NBCU established a successful blueprint for reaching consumers on their viewing platform of choice, which could prove to be an important milestone into the future. 

The measurement month of August 2024 included four weeks: 07/29/2024 through 08/25/2024. Nielsen measurement weeks run Monday through Sunday.