The WRAP
NBCU and Versant Represented 13% of February TV Viewership, According to Delayed Nielsen Numbers
It was the company’s best month since the Paris Olympics in 2024
Unsurprisingly, Super Bowl LX and the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics were very good for NBCUniversal and Versant. Viewership across the two companies made up 13.1% of all TV viewing during the month of February, according to Nielsen’s Media Distributor Gauge report, which was released this past Tuesday.
The Media Distributor Gauge measures total TV viewership by media company. Ten percent of that viewership belonged to NBCUniversal with the remaining 3.3% coming from the corporation’s cable-focused spinoff company, Versant. NBCU-Versant saw a 48% increase in total TV viewership compared to January. The companies also saw their best TV share since the Paris Olympics in August of 2024, a month during which NBCU accounted for 13.4% of all TV viewership.
As per usual, the Super Bowl accounted for the largest TV audience during the month of February, bringing in over 125 million viewers. The NFL’s big game then provided a bump for NBC’s Olympics viewership, which increased viewership for NBC affiliate stations by 60% throughout the month in question.
On the streaming side, Peacock saw a 64% increase in February viewing and recorded its highest share of television to date when it comes to The Gauge, accounting for a 3% share of TV viewing. Peacock’s simulcast of the Super Bowl accounted for 20% of the game’s audience and helped make Feb. 8 the platform’s most-watched day of all time. Peacock’s viewers were also notably younger as 73% of its Super Bowl audience were 50 years old or younger compared to 54% of NBC’s audience. The streamer also saw a Big Game boost for its new original series “The ‘Burbs,” which was the most-watched episode of the month across all original titles.
Finally, on the cable side, USA Network saw a 234% increase in February viewerships thanks to the Olympics, and MS NOW saw a 7% increase. Cable news viewership overall was up 4.4% during the month in question.
As for the rest of the Media Distributor Gauge report, YouTube came in second place during the month of February, accounting for 12.7%. It was followed by The Walt Disney Company (9.9%), Netflix (8.4%) and Paramount (7%).
