High numbers of out-of-school/at-home kids and teenagers helped rocket YouTube to the top spot among Nielsen's media distributor index in July -- pushing it ahead of Walt Disney to a 10.4% share.

Disney was at 9.9% for the month, with NBCUniversal close behind at 9.5%. The June period had these top three relatively at the same levels, with Disney at 10.8% followed by YouTube (9.9%) and NBCU (8.5%).

NBCU gained because of the Paris Olympics -- although only for three days in July. NBCU channels were up 14% -- a 33% leap for Peacock and a 24% increase across broadcast affiliates. 

The next-highest percentages were Netflix at 8.4% followed by Fox (7.4%), Paramount (7.4%) and Warner Bros. Discovery (7.2%).

Fox posted a strong 16% month-to-month gain. It was at 6.6% in June.

Fox benefited from a 39% viewership increase due to Fox News Channel’s coverage of the Republican National Convention. Fox’s Tubi also climbed 6% compared to June. 

Nielsen says YouTube’s school-age viewers -- persons ages 2-17 -- accounted for nearly 30% of the streaming platform's viewership for July.

This amounts to 13% of TV viewership overall -- the largest usage total for that demographic since July 2023. 

This data was generated from total day viewing minutes for persons two years of age and up across all individual distributors' national platforms, local TV stations and syndicated programming.