Nielsen will soon count three streaming services owned or operated by the Walt Disney Company as one collective unit in future reports on total time spent with television each month, the measurement firm said this week.
Starting with the January 2025 edition of “The Gauge,” Nielsen says it will count Disney Plus, ESPN Plus and Hulu as a single entity called “Disney Streaming,” which the firm believes will more-accurately measure how much time streamers are spending with Disney-owned services.
Nielsen justified the change by noting Disney’s integration of Hulu and ESPN Plus content into Disney Plus over the past year, which “could affect crediting between Disney’s streaming properties as it relates to The Gauge.”
The change will almost certainly lift Disney-owned streaming services to a higher position compared to how each service has been reported in the past. In December, Nielsen said Hulu held a 2.5 percent share of time spent with TV that month, while Disney Plus came in at 2.1 percent. ESPN Plus was not rated.
Had Disney Plus and Hulu been combined in December, “Disney Streaming” would have captured over 4 percent of time spent with TV, edging out Amazon’s Prime Video at 4 percent. Disney Streaming would have ranked third overall, behind YouTube (11.1 percent) and Netflix (8.5 percent).
The move is unusual, because Nielsen already ranks Disney streaming and media properties collectively on another report called the Media Distributor Gauge, which aggregates the linear, streaming and other media assets of entertainment companies. Disney has consistently ranked as the top media and entertainment company in terms of total TV usage each month since Nielsen first began issuing the Media Distributor Gauge report last May.
In November, Disney had 11.1 percent of all time spent with TV across its traditional and streaming properties, according to Nielsen. A report for December is expected toward the end of this month.
Notably, Nielsen has not confirmed plans to count other streaming services operated by a single entity as one collective unit in forthcoming issues of “The Gauge.” The only other co-owned services listed on The Gauge report are Paramount Plus and Pluto TV.
