YouTube grabs largest share of TV to date

YouTube now commands the largest television audience to date, leading all other media companies in terms of viewership for the third month in a row.

Television audiences spent most of their time watching YouTube in April, ratings company Nielsen reports. According to its latest Gauge report, the video platform accounted for 12.4% of all television viewership last month.

Nielsen's Gauge is a monthly report that tracks how Americans spend their television viewing time across different platforms. YouTube has now topped the list for a third consecutive month.

It’s also the platform’s largest share of television to date. YouTube is followed by Disney (10.7%), Paramount (8.9%), and NBC Universal (8.2%). Netflix rounded up the top five with 7.5%.

According to Nielsen, April this year was the first time that company rankings stayed exactly the same month over month since it began tracking the data in November 2023.

YouTube’s numbers reflect the continued growth of streaming overall. Time spent streaming accounted for 44.3% of total television viewing in April, reaching a record high for a third month in a row.

Meanwhile, cable accounted for 24.5% of television share, followed by broadcast, with 20.8%. Compared with April last year, streaming usage has increased 15%, while broadcast and cable declined 7% and 16%, respectively.

Streaming boost

Streaming has benefited from successful multiplatform strategies adopted by media companies, which contributed to “consistent” increases in viewership, Nielsen said.

“These changes have put an even stronger emphasis on media companies’ multichannel (i.e., traditional TV and streaming) and multi-platform (multiple streaming services) content distribution strategies,” it said.

April’s top streaming title, ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy, is a “prime example” of this multi-channel and multi-platform distribution success.

“Grey’s racked up 3.9 billion viewing minutes across Hulu (within ‘Disney’ streaming) and Netflix in April, and continued to engage viewers with new episodes from its current, 21st season on both ABC and Hulu,” Nielsen said.

HBO’s The White Lotus was the second-most-streamed show, garnering 3.7 billion viewing minutes.

Dramas and news were top broadcast genres, but sports programming brought in the big numbers. The Men’s NCAA Basketball Championship game drew April’s largest broadcast audience, with 18.3 million viewers on CBS.

Sports also dominated cable, with ESPN’s coverage of the NFL Draft on April 24th its most watched telecast last month, averaging 6.4 million viewers.