NEW YORK — Autumn grid-iron action and the blossoming of a new broadcast TV season helped over-the-air broadcast and cable television combat the ever-growing encroachment of digital and streaming platforms in October, fresh data from Nielsen found in its Media Distributor Gauge show.
Coverage of the National Football League (NFL) and NCAA college football, along with a thrilling Major League Baseball post-season that concluded in early November, fueled “substantial gains for traditional media powerhouses,” Nielsen shared on Monday.
The top three media companies remained unchanged from September to October, as the rankings were led by YouTube with 12.9% of total TV, ESPN and ABC parent Disney with 11.4%, and NBCUniversal with 8.6%. Time spent watching YouTube was up 4% this month (+0.3 share points), driven by double-digit growth among kids and teens as many schools across various parts of the U.S. experienced fall breaks.
Disney achieved the largest share increase in October and added 0.7 share points as its overall viewership climbed 7% month-over-month. Disney’s success was characterized by balanced growth across linear and streaming platforms: ESPN and ABC affiliates each saw a 9% viewing increase, while Disney Streaming (Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+) contributed a 7% bump. ABC affiliates and Disney Streaming represented the largest share growth contributions, however, each adding 0.3 share points to the distributor’s total.
Hallmark posted the largest increase in watch-time in October as viewership surged 11% compared to September. Hallmark’s growth was powered by an uptick in movie viewership, which led to a gain of 0.1 point to represent 1.0% of TV this month. Hallmark climbed from 13th to 12th in the distributor rankings.
The influence of live sports and linear programming caused movement elsewhere on the chart: FOX and Paramount mirrored Disney’s 7% monthly growth and each climbed one spot in the distributor rankings, finishing with 8.4% and 8.2% of TV, respectively. FOX was propelled by the MLB playoffs, with significant lifts from FOX Sports 1 (FS1) and FOX broadcast affiliates. FS1 recorded a massive 285% viewing bump on the strength of ALCS coverage, and contributed 0.4 points to FOX’s 0.5-point increase, while FOX affiliates rose 12% driven by the start of the World Series (Games 1 and 2), college football’s Big Noon Saturday, and NFL games on Sundays.
Similar to Disney, Paramount’s October growth was powered by increases across both linear and streaming, with CBS affiliates up 13% and Paramount+ up 8.3%. Although NFL games represented CBS’ the top three programs this month, the network notably owned the top three non-sports programs across the entire broadcast category, with Tracker, 60 Minutes and Matlock.
Warner Bros. Discovery also benefited from the MLB Playoffs in October, adding 0.2 points month-over-month to capture 5.6% of total TV watch-time. Exclusive coverage of the Dodgers-Brewers four-game NLCS drove a 93% viewing increase on TBS.
The October 2025 interval spanned four weeks, from 09/29/2025 through 10/26/2025. Nielsen reporting follows the broadcast calendar, with weekly intervals beginning on Monday.
