By Caspian
What the April numbers show
A social video giant is setting the pace on the biggest screen in the house. In April 2025, YouTube held the largest share of TV viewing among U.S. media companies for the third straight month, according to Nielsen’s Media Distributor Gauge. Its 12.4% share wasn’t just enough to stay on top—it was its biggest slice of TV time yet.
That headline number sits in a month that was unusually steady. For the first time since Nielsen launched this company-by-company view in November 2023, the rankings didn’t budge from March. Stability is the story: viewers’ habits on the TV screen look less like a pandemic-era roller coaster and more like a settled routine, with digital-first platforms anchoring the top tier.
Disney finished second with 10.7% of TV time, up 0.2 percentage points. Sports did the heavy lifting: cross-network coverage of the NFL Draft on ESPN and ABC, the NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship, and the opening round of the NBA Playoffs kept Disney’s channels and apps in heavy rotation. On the streaming side, Grey’s Anatomy was April’s most-watched title, pulling in 3.9 billion minutes—helped by its multichannel life across broadcast and streaming libraries.
Paramount posted the month’s biggest jump, climbing to 8.9% of TV viewing. On unrounded figures, its increase edged YouTube’s, with CBS’s broadcast affiliates delivering more than half of the company’s growth. That points to a simple truth about the current TV moment: live, widely available programming—news, sports, primetime broadcast—still moves mass audiences, even as streaming soaks up more hours.
NBCUniversal rounded out the top four at 8.2%, up from 8.0% in March. Add it up, and the top four distributors captured about 40% of all TV time in April. The rest of the market is spread across a long tail of streamers, programmers, and tech platforms competing for the same living-room minutes.
Why this matters—and what’s driving it
First, a quick primer. Nielsen’s Media Distributor Gauge tracks how Americans use their TV screens each month and assigns the time to media companies—across broadcast, cable, and streaming. It’s about time spent, not unique viewers. It’s also about the TV set only; phone and laptop viewing doesn’t count. That’s why the figures are a clean read on what wins the living room, where advertising dollars are thickest.
So why is YouTube out in front? The living room has become a natural home for creator-driven video, niche channels, and long-form content that used to be watched on laptops. The platform’s recommendation engine fills gaps in traditional TV schedules, and it never runs out of fresh inventory—sports highlights, gaming, news explainers, music, kids’ shows, documentary-style deep dives. The result is a frictionless habit: sit down, open the app, and watch for an hour without thinking about where a show “comes from.”
Disney’s second-place finish highlights a different path: tentpole live events and deep libraries. April’s sports calendar gave ESPN and ABC a lift, and Grey’s Anatomy shows how a back catalog can hit new peaks when it’s available across multiple services and linear channels. That multichannel reach matters. A viewer might start an episode on broadcast, pick up an old season on streaming, and then get pulled into more titles within the same ecosystem.
Paramount’s growth tells you broadcast is still a force. CBS affiliates carry live sports, local news, and serialized hits that audiences consume in real time. That near-universal reach—no passwords, no extra devices—still delivers volume when the programming pops. The company’s 0.4-point share gain in a single month, the largest among the big players, shows how quickly network wins can move the needle in the new measurement.
NBCUniversal’s steady increase to 8.2% underscores the advantage that diversified companies have. The mix of NBC broadcast, cable brands, and Peacock streaming means the company can capture viewing no matter how a fan chooses to watch a show or game. It’s not flashy month to month, but it adds up.
Another angle here is advertising. This report dropped May 27, right in the thick of upfront season, when ad buyers place big bets for the year ahead. A stable ranking with YouTube on top sends a clear signal: connected TV spending will keep shifting toward platforms that aggregate massive watch-time, regardless of whether the content looks like traditional TV. At the same time, Disney’s and Paramount’s April gains remind buyers that live sports and broadcast franchises still command attention at scale.
A few caveats, because methodology matters. The shares reflect TV screen usage only; mobile viewing can be huge for digital platforms but doesn’t show up here. The metric is share of time in a given month, not long-term loyalty. Big events can swing the mix for a week and lift a company’s monthly total. And because Nielsen rounds the numbers, movement that looks the same on paper can be slightly different under the hood—like Paramount’s edge on unrounded growth versus YouTube in April.
What should we watch next? Three things:
- Sports seasonality: NBA and NHL playoffs, MLB summer windows, and the kickoff of college football will shuffle shares. Expect companies with rights to see periodic spikes.
- Library strategies: Shows like Grey’s Anatomy prove that availability across multiple services boosts total minutes. Watch how studios window their big series as licensing deals reset.
- Interface and discovery: The easier it is to land something watchable in under 30 seconds, the more minutes a platform captures. That’s where algorithmic feeds have an edge over rigid grids.
The bigger picture is a maturing living-room market. April’s unchanged rankings suggest viewers have settled into habits: a mix of creator video, live sports, and a few go-to streamers and broadcast staples. Tech platforms that own the user journey on the TV set—home screens, recommendations, frictionless play—are gaining leverage. Legacy media still commands moments; digital platforms command hours.
For now, the scoreboard reads: YouTube first, Disney second, Paramount surging, NBCUniversal close behind. And the line that sums up the month? The hierarchy didn’t blink. In a business defined by change, that’s a notable plot twist.