OTT streaming giant Netflix not only smashed through its second quarter 2024 earnings projections and subscriber growth, but is also reveling in third quarter magic that sets it apart from its peers, the just-released June 2024 Media Distributor Gauge report from Nielsen shows.
According to the report, Netflix exhibited the largest monthly growth in June, based on Nielsen’s cross-platform view of total TV consumption aggregated by media company.
With usage up 11.8% compared with May, Netflix added almost a full point to its share of total TV usage and moved from the sixth ranking media company in May, to fourth in June, accounting for 8.4% of TV for the month.
The data points come as Nielsen’s “The Gauge” previously reported that 40.3% of time spent watching TV in June was attributable to streaming. And, Nielsen says. Pure-play streamers like Netflix and YouTube saw the most benefit from a big streaming month. Time spent watching YouTube on television was up 4.2% in June to push the streamer to nearly 10% of total TV usage, securing another month with the second-largest share of TV among media distributors.
While eight of the 14 companies ranked in the Media Distributor Gauge exhibited usage increases this month, affiliate streaming platforms helped rebalance the viewing share for multi-platform distributors across the board, Nielsen reports.
With 10.8% of June’s TV viewing time, Disney maintained the top spot among media distributors, driven by a 15% increase in Disney+ usage. FOX-owned Tubi, which notched 2.0% of TV in June and a 15% bump in usage, climbed the ranks among its fellow FOX affiliates and was the company’s second best performer behind FOX News Channel, helping FOX climb to 6.6% of TV (+0.2 pt.).
NBCUniversal retained its spot as the third ranking media distributor in June with 8.5% of TV, despite a loss of half a share point. The Olympics will certainly put the spotlight on NBCU throughout July and August as their coverage of the biennial event has historically drawn large audiences to all of its platforms.
In contrast, Nielsen says the lack of sports and drama content on broadcast networks was beneficial to cable entrants A&E, AMC and Hallmark whose affiliates helped fill the gaps by riding increases in viewing across cable’s feature film and drama genres.
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A&E: 1.4% share of TV; up 11.1%, +0.2 pt.
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Hallmark: 1.2% share of TV; up 6.1%, +0.1 pt.
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AMC: 1.1% share of TV; up 7.7%, +0.1 pt.
That said, MoffettNathanson on July 15 dropped its coverage of AMC Networks, “due to a reprioritization of Research resources.”
At the same time, Pivotal Research Group CEO and Internet, Media and Communications Analyst Jeffrey Wlodarczak continued to gush over Netflix, reiterating his incredible street-high year-end 2024 target price of $800 for “NFLX” stock.
Netflix shares completed Monday’s trading at $647.50.
Netflix has clearly won the global streaming wars as evidenced by yet another strong result and raised guidance, especially relative to its streaming peers, and this is what, in our view, winning looks like.” — Jeffrey Wlodarczak, Pivotal Research Group
In Wlodarczak’s view, “We continue to expect Netflix to be able to generate solid subscriber growth and ARPU growth,” even as price increases are being seen in the U.S. and advertising is still ramping up. With an ability to generate strong subscriber growth and take price/expand margins, this, Wlodarczak says is a powerful combo.
“It is abundantly clear that Netflix is demonstrating massive scale as it continues to produce strong subscriber results and free cash flow with the ability to invest to accelerate that growth (through deals such as the 2025 WWE agreement and the 2024 Christmas NFL Games) while its streaming peers continue to generate substantial losses and generally mediocre subscriber results,” Wlodarczak concludes. “Netflix has clearly won the global streaming wars as evidenced by yet another strong result and raised guidance, especially relative to its streaming peers, and this is what, in our view, winning looks like.”
