Nielsen has released the September 2024 edition of its Media Distributor Gauge, and Disney has reclaimed the number-one status it lost in July.

Based largely on the fall football season, Disney’s networks and streamers claimed 11.3% of total TV usage in the US last month, compared to 9.5% in August. The media giant beat out YouTube (10.6%) and NBCUniversal (9.3%), which each spent a month on top in July and August respectively.

In Nielsen’s latest Gauge report (comparing specific platforms rather than parent companies), Disney+ had a 2.5% share of the TV pie, buoyed by Hulu content becoming available to package subscribers, as well as the continued dominance of preschool toon Bluey (pictured), which racked up 4.2 billion minutes of watch time last month. 

“Ultimately, as viewers shifted their focus to football in September, eight of the 14 reported media companies experienced viewing decreases this month, including NBCU,” Nielsen added. (It’s worth noting that NBCU’s drop in September was influenced by the distributor enjoying a massive summer uptick, thanks to the Olympics.)

With sports content in strong demand across all age groups, streaming platforms have been busy implementing a sports-forward strategy to attract family audiences.