Paramount Edges Out Netflix in Nielsen’s April TV Gauge, and ‘Tracker’ Deserves the Credit

Every month, Nielsen’s Media Distributor Gauge offers one of the clearest windows into how American audiences are actually dividing their television attention across broadcast, cable, and streaming platforms. The tool reflects total viewing by media distributor across all of those categories, giving the industry a holistic picture of where viewers are spending their time. The results released June 25 for the month of April offer a few surprises, and one standout moment that the entire industry will be talking about.

YouTube maintained its commanding lead in the rankings, climbing 0.2 percentage points to a 13.4% share of total TV viewing. The platform’s dominance at the top of the chart has become a persistent storyline in its own right, with the Google-owned service continuing to outpace every traditional media company by a considerable margin. Disney followed in second place with 10.3%, and NBCUniversal combined with Versant secured third at 8.2%.

The number that will raise eyebrows sits at positions four and five. Paramount finished April with a 7.9% share of total TV viewing, edging out Netflix at 7.8% to round out the top five in Nielsen’s Media Distributor Gauge. The gap between them is razor-thin, but the placement carries real symbolic weight for a company that spans legacy broadcast through its CBS network all the way to its Paramount+ streaming service.

Paramount’s position was not an accident. The Masters Tournament’s final round aired on CBS and topped the month’s broadcast telecasts, while ‘Tracker’ and ‘Marshals’ led broadcast dramas as the most-watched genre in the category at 28%. On the streaming side, Paramount’s streaming properties accounted for a 2.1% share of TV viewership for the month. The combination of live sports, tentpole drama, and on-demand content is exactly the kind of multi-platform muscle Paramount has been building toward.

Overall, streaming held steady at a 47.6% share of TV viewing in April, while cable climbed 0.2 share points to 21.6%, its largest share of television over the past six months, driven largely by sports including the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship game on TBS, TNT, and TruTV. Broadcast accounted for 19.9% of viewing for the month. The data paints a picture of a television ecosystem that is still genuinely fragmented rather than one where streaming has simply taken over.

Context matters here too. In March, Paramount held an 8.1% share of total TV, driven in part by March Madness coverage alongside CBS dramas ‘Tracker’ and ‘The Marshals’. The slight dip from March to April is modest, but the consistency of Paramount’s performance across consecutive months underscores how much the network’s content slate has become a genuine ratings engine. Earlier in the season, back in November, Paramount posted its largest share since April at 8.9%, fueled equally by its broadcast and streaming properties.

Further down the April rankings, Fox finished at 6.9%, Warner Bros. Discovery at 6.1%, Amazon at 4.3%, and The Roku Channel at 3%. With Paramount consistently punching above its weight and giving Netflix genuine competition in the distributor rankings, the conversation around who really owns American television viewing has never been more complicated, so share your thoughts below on whether you think Paramount can keep this momentum going once ‘Tracker’ and its other flagship shows wrap for the season.