Nielsen released a new ranking of companies in the media distribution business, including broadcast, cable and streaming, and The Walt Disney Co. was at the top of that list.
At a time when it appears that streaming is taking over the television business, the new ranking has YouTube as No. 2 followed by traditional media companies NBCUniversal, Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery.
Netflix, the streaming powerhouse with no traditional media assets, was fifth.
The news comes on the morning of Disney’s upfront presentation. Disney's media assets include broadcast network ABC, cable programmer ESPN and streaming platforms Disney Plus and Hulu.
The rankings reflect share of television usage in April.
“With more programs available across platforms, it’s vital for creators, advertisers and the industry at large to understand what and where audiences are watching,” Nielsen CEO Karthik Rao said. “The Media Distributor Gauge is a perfect complement to The Gauge and serves as the first convergent TV comparison of its kind. Together, these reports paint the most complete picture of TV viewing today, which is critical as we head into the upfront.”
Nielsen also released its regular monthly snapshot of television usage, which showed streaming had a 38.4% share of viewing in April, followed by cable at 29.1% and broadcast with 22.2%.
The TVB, which represents local TV stations, groused that the new distributor report does not take into account how much of each company's viewing is commercial free.
"The Gauge reports combine all video platforms in one analysis – without separating ad-supported viewing from non-ad supported viewing – which misleads marketers into thinking their commercials can reach significantly more streaming viewers than is possible or the reality,” said TVB CEO Steve Lanzano.
“Advertisers’ commercials are only available on ad-supported video platforms. When viewing of ad-supported platforms is analyzed alone, the results are very different from what is shown in the Gauge reports because a large number of streaming viewers do not receive ads. Advertisers need these facts when considering video media investments," Lanzano said.
