According to the latest Nielsen Media Distributor Gauge for January, Disney had a strong start to the year, nearly matching its January 2025 performance, which was its best ever. The report showed Disney narrowing the gap between it and first-place YouTube to within 0.6 share points.
The latest report, which examines total viewing consumption through television screens by media distributors across broadcast, cable, and streaming, found that Disney finished January with 11.9% of TV usage, aided by ESPN’s football coverage, which included the College Football Playoffs and Championship games. This drove an +82% monthly viewing increase for the network and contributed nearly a full share point to Disney’s total.
The House of Mickey also received a boost from its ABC affiliates, as they aired multiple NFL games and the Citrus Bowl, as well as welcoming the return of broadcast dramas and seasonal staples like New Year’s Rockin’ Eve and The Rose Bowl Parade. This array of programming lifted the affiliates’ viewership by +10% for the month.
Looking at the overall chart, YouTube remained the most-watched media entity in January, with a 12.5% showing, down -0.2% from December.
Disney took second place with 11.9%, a +1.2% increase from the last month of 2025. Disney also had the largest share increase for the month. It was followed by Netflix, which finished January with 8.8%, down -0.2% from December.
At No. 4 was the NBCU and Versant grouping, which finished the month with 8.5%. Nielsen says it will treat the two conglomerates as one because NBCU is handling ad sales for both entities until further notice.
Paramount rounded out the top five with 8.2%, a -0.4 decline from its December performance. Fox was in sixth place with 7.4%, improving its month-to-month performance by +0.4%.
Warner Bros. Discovery continued to occupy seventh place with a 5.5% share, a +0.1% gain from the previous month. Amazon followed it with 4.1%, down -0.2% in January.
The Roku Channel was at No. 9, holding steady at 3%, and Scripps closed out the top 10 with a 1.6% share, down -0.1% month to month.
See the media distribution ranking below:
