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In November, Fox News Channel saw a 20% increase in viewership compared to the month before, driven by its coverage of the presidential election between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.
That helped Fox reach its best-ever overall share of TV usage on Nielsen‘s monthly Media Distributor Gauge report, which breaks down viewership data by media company. According to the newest report, Fox was responsible for 8.6% of all TV viewership in November. This is the second month in a row Fox has set a record for itself; last month, the company’s 8.4% was also its highest to date.
Along with Fox News viewership — highlights of which included Bret Baier’s interview with Kamala Harris, as well as night-of election coverage — Fox’s overall viewership was boosted by sports. Fox broadcast affiliates saw an 8% increase in viewership from the month before, with Nielsen indicating the final three games of the Dodgers vs. Yankees World Series as well as NFL and college football games as the source of the jump.
Fox wasn’t the only company to hit its highest share yet; YouTube set a record for itself with 10.8%, coming second only to Disney, which had its second consecutive month as the Gauge’s winning media company with 11.1%. When isolated for streaming viewership, the company’s hold is even stronger, with Nielsen reporting a share of 43%.
Popular on Variety After YouTube was Paramount (9.3%) and NBCUniversal (8.7%) before Fox’s fifth place finish. Right behind it at No. 6 was Netflix, which took up 7.7% of all TV viewership. Per Nielsen, Netflix peaked with an 8.8% share in the third Monday-to-Sunday week of the November interval, during which it livestreamed its much-publicized Jake Paul-Mike Tyson fight. The night of the fight itself saw major viewership: 34% of all 18-49-year-old males watching TV during primetime that night were watching the fight. That’s double what the average NFL game receives among that demographic, and half of the average Super Bowl.
Because the Gauge follows the broadcast calendar, the most recent report includes data from Oct. 28 through Nov. 24 rather than the exact month of November. Therefore, as Thanksgiving fell on Nov. 28 this year, Thanksgiving viewership is excluded and December’s report will be a better source for data on holiday viewership patterns in 2024.
That said, Nielsen indicated that some holiday viewing is apparent in the November report. Hallmark, for example, saw a larger bump than any other company this month: 24% more viewership, which brought it to 1.4% of all TV usage compared to last month’s 1.2%.
