One more data point for the “live sports is the engine of linear TV” argument (not that it needed many more): TNT’s NBA playoffs telecasts accounted for nearly all of Warner Bros. Discovery’s gains in Nielsen’s TV distributor rankings in May.
WBD had 7 percent of all TV use in the United States in May, up from 6.7 percent a month earlier. The gain was powered by a 69 percent increase in TNT viewing compared to April, with the NBA playoffs accounting for most of that surge. Nielsen says that the eight New York Knicks games on TNT in the May reporting period (which ran from April 29-May 26) drew 7 billion minutes of viewing time — more than a fifth of the total for all NBA playoff games (31.4 billion minutes) on WBD and Disney outlets for the month.
Fox also posted month-to-month gains in the Media Distributor Gauge, going from 6.8 percent of TV viewing in April to 7 percent in May. The continued growth of Fox’s free streamer Tubi (2.2 percent of all TV use) and steady ratings for Fox Sports’ NASCAR telecasts were the main contributors to the growth.
YouTube led all media companies for the fourth straight month with 12.5 percent of TV use, up a tick from 12.4 percent in April. Disney held steady at 10.7 percent for second place; NBC Universal (8 percent), Paramount (7.9 percent) and Netflix (7.5 percent) filled out the top five.
The media distributor rankings for May are below.