In November, Fox News Channel saw a 20% increase in viewers compared to the previous month, driven by its coverage of the presidential election between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.
This helped Fox achieve a record high share of overall TV usage in Nielsen’s monthly Media Distributor Gauge report, which breaks down viewership data by media company. According to the latest report, Fox accounted for 8.6% of all TV viewers in November. This is the second month in a row that Fox has set his own record. The company’s 8.4% gain last month was also its highest ever.
In addition to Fox News’ viewership (highlights included Bret Baier’s interview with Kamala Harris and election night coverage), Fox’s overall viewership was boosted by sports. . Audience numbers for Fox affiliates are up 8% month-over-month, with Nielsen pointing to the final three games of the Dodgers-Yankees World Series, as well as NFL and college football games, as factors for the increase.
Fox wasn’t the only company to record the highest market share. YouTube set its own record with 10.8%, making it the second media company on the gauge for the second month in a row behind Disney, which had 11.1%. The company’s dominance is even stronger when it comes to streaming viewers, with Nielsen reporting a 43% share.
YouTube was followed by Paramount (9.3%) and NBCUniversal (8.7%), with Fox finishing in fifth place. Just behind in sixth place was Netflix, which accounted for 7.7% of all TV viewers. According to Nielsen, Netflix peaked with an 8.8% share in the third week of November, Monday through Sunday, during which it livestreamed the highly publicized Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight. The night of the game itself had big ratings, with 34% of all men ages 18-49 watching television during prime time that night watching the game. That’s double the average NFL game in that demographic and half the average Super Bowl.
The gauge follows a broadcast calendar, so the latest report includes data from October 28 to November 24, rather than the exact month of November. Therefore, since Thanksgiving fell on November 28th this year, Thanksgiving viewership numbers are excluded, making the December report a better source of data on 2024 holiday viewership patterns.
That said, Nielsen noted that holiday viewing was evident in the November report. Hallmark, for example, saw more gains than any other company this month. Viewership increased by 24% and accounted for 1.4% of total TV usage, up from 1.2% last month.
