NEW YORK — Thank the return of National Football League match-ups and NCAA college football games for bringing significant consumption gains for media companies in September, with Disney reclaiming the top spot in Nielsen’s Media Distributor Gauge for the month.
With 11.3% of TV and marked the third consecutive monthly lead-change, Disney notched a 17% viewing increase in September and added 1.8 share points over August — the largest share increase among all reported distributors.
Disney’s 17% growth can be attributed to gains from ESPN (+101%) and ESPN2 (+165%), and its ABC broadcast affiliates (+25%).
In addition to Disney, other distributors recorded double-digit viewing increases in September, including FOX (+18%) and Amazon (+13%). Like Disney, FOX also enjoyed a bump in viewing to its broadcast affiliates and was up 69% compared to August. Overall, FOX’s share of television viewing climbed to 7.3% in September, and Amazon finished with 3.7% of TV — a new high water mark for the streaming distributor.
As viewers shifted their focus to football in September, eight of the 14 reported media companies experienced viewing decreases this month, including NBCUniversal.
