Streaming took nearly half of U.S. TV watch-time in May at 48.6%, and the distributor table settled into YouTube, Disney, NBCU+Versant and Netflix. What will change that table next is not viewing performance but two pending acquisitions: Paramount's $111 billion purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox's $22 billion purchase of Roku. Over the same period, the top of the weekly streaming chart belonged to a film and a library series rather than to originals.
1. Nielsen Media Distributor Gauge — May 2026
YouTube held 13.8%, a third consecutive month at No. 1 and a platform best. Netflix returned to fourth at 8.0%, and Nielsen attributed the gain not to an original but to La Brea, an acquired series that first aired on NBC. It drew more than 4 billion minutes in May and ranked second among all titles for the month.
Source: Nielsen, released July 28, 2026. The May interval ran April 27 to May 31 (five weeks).
Share of total U.S. TV watch-time, top distributors, May 2026. Source: Nielsen Media Distributor Gauge
2. Streaming platform shares — May 2026
Prime Video set a platform best at 4.5%. The finale of its original series The Boys generated 5 billion minutes, while 20 live sports events — including 12 NBA Playoff games and six WNBA games — added a combined 7.5 billion. Sports scheduling produced more minutes than the month's biggest scripted title. Viewing among 18-24s rose 18%.
3. Composition of TV watch-time — May 2026
Streaming reached 48.6%, the highest share since the Gauge began. Broadcast and cable together came to 39.6%, still short of streaming alone. Total TV usage fell 1% from April to May, a smaller decline than the 2-4% typical of that transition.
Total TV usage fell 1% from April to May, against 2-4% in prior years.
Composition of U.S. TV watch-time, May 2026. 'Other' is the residual after the three reported categories. Source: Nielsen The Gauge
4. Weekly streaming viewing — July 20-26, 2026
The week's No. 1 was a film and its No. 2 a series that ended in 2019. The top original, The Hawk at 944 million minutes, trailed the top acquired title, The Big Bang Theory at 1.12 billion, by nearly 180 million minutes. Setting aside King of the Hill and Ransom Canyon, which returned on season premieres, most of the minutes at the top of the chart came from existing assets rather than new ones.
The week's No. 1 was a film and No. 2 an acquired series that ended in 2019. The Big Bang Theory cleared a billion minutes for a second straight week, beating its own prior high of 1.08 billion. New episodes accounted for 70% of King of the Hill's total (about 461 million). Agent Kim Reactivated premiered on SBS on June 26; its U.S. audience was 33% Asian and 33% Hispanic.
Weekly streaming minutes viewed, July 20-26, 2026. TV-set viewing only. Source: Nielsen streaming top 10
5. Box office — Spider-Man: Brand New Day
At $855 million domestic, the film passed Spider-Man: No Way Home for third all-time in North America and sits $3.4 million behind Avengers: Endgame. Its $360 million opening weekend is the largest on record, and the North American market as a whole took $429 million that weekend, itself a record.
North American all-time leaders: Star Wars: The Force Awakens $936.7M, Avengers: Endgame $858.4M, Spider-Man: No Way Home $804.8M.
Top four all-time domestic grossers. Sources: Box Office Mojo, Variety, Deadline
6. Network viewing — week of mid-August 2026
An NFL preseason game led primetime. The two most-watched network programs of the week, however, came from the early-evening news window rather than primetime.
The two most-watched network programs of the week both aired in the early-evening news window rather than primetime.
7. Pending M&A
The two deals differ in kind. Paramount is buying content and channels; Fox is buying a device operating system, the home-screen entry point and first-party data. Against the $440 million Fox paid for Tubi in 2020, the Roku purchase is roughly 50 times the size.
Financing terms per SEC filings. Share effects are a simple sum of May 2026 Gauge figures and may differ from post-merger reporting.
Deal values compared, with Fox's 2020 Tubi purchase for reference. Sources: company filings and press releases
8. Korea-linked data points
A terrestrial drama that premiered on SBS on June 26 was inside Nielsen's U.S. weekly originals top 10 in under two months. It was distributed through Netflix, and its U.S. audience split into roughly one-third Asian and one-third Hispanic viewers.
Sources
Nielsen, 'Streaming Embarks on Annual Summer Ascent in Nielsen's May 2026 Gauge Reports,' July 28, 2026 · The Hollywood Reporter charts dashboard (updated Aug. 26, 2026) and weekly streaming report (July 20-26) · Media Play News weekly Nielsen roundup · Variety, Boxoffice Pro and Deadline on box office · Variety (March 13 and July 2026) and PBS NewsHour (Aug. 22, 2026) on Paramount-WBD · Fox Corporation press release (June 15, 2026), The Hollywood Reporter and Bloomberg Opinion (June 16, 2026) on Fox-Roku · U.S. SEC filings (WBD Form SC TO-T/A; Fox Form 8-K(8 2026)