Bengaluru, February 26, 2025: Disney accounted for 12.0% of time spent watching TV in January 2025 according to Nielsen’s Media Distributor Gauge, locking in its best monthly share of TV among media companies since the report was established in November 2023. Disney’s success was primarily due to the College Football Playoffs, which represented the seven highest rated cable telecasts in January, and which drove an 84% monthly increase in ESPN viewership. Overall, viewing to Disney-owned entities was up 12% versus December to add 0.8 share points.
Further summarized in Nielsen’s January 2025 Gauge ‘Classic’ report, this month’s Media Distributor Gauge results were also influenced by a 5% monthly increase in TV watch-time. A busy news cycle helped drive a 26% monthly uptick in cable news viewing, including +26% for MSNBC, +29% for FOX News Channel and +39% for CNN. However, FOX News Channel ultimately provided the primary boost for FOX at the total distributor level, leading the way with its coverage of the presidential inauguration. Overall, FOX was up 12% in January and tied Disney for the largest monthly viewing increase among distributors, finishing with 7.6% of total TV (+0.5 pt.).
Netflix clinched its highest share of TV to date with 8.6% of overall viewing in January. The pure-play streamer followed an already robust December with an even stronger January as its watch-time climbed 7%. This was due in large part to Squid Game, which generated 9 billion viewing minutes as January’s top streaming title, in tandem with 11 other original series and movies that reached over 1 billion viewing minutes each.
Consistent with the transition away from the holidays, cable movie viewing in January dropped 22% versus December. This contributed to a loss of 0.6 share points for Hallmark, which had previously exhibited two consecutive monthly gains, leading it to finish the month with 1.0% of TV usage.
The January 2025 interval dates included 12/30/2024 through 01/26/2025. Nielsen reporting follows the broadcast calendar with measurement weeks that run Monday through Sunday.
