• by Wayne Friedman , September 19, 2017

In August, NBCUniversal, Time Warner and Viacom were the top three TV network groups when it came to market share of total viewers.

Looking at Nielsen live program-plus-seven days of time-shifted viewing (L7) for August, NBCU pulled in a 15.3% share of all viewers, aggregating all its networks, as well as TV station program syndication. Time Warner was at an 11.8% share and Viacom earned 10%, according to Pivotal Research Group.

Walt Disney was next with a 9.9% share, followed by 21st Century Fox at 9.2% and Discovery Communications with 7.2%.

CBS Corp. earned (for its broadcast network) a 4.6% share, followed by Scripps Networks Interactive at 4.4%; A+E Networks with 4.3%, and AMC Networks at 2.5%.

In comparison, looking at 18-49 C3 commercial share -- the average commercial rating plus three days of time-shifted viewing: Viacom had the biggest share at 17.3%. Time Warner was next at 12.6%.

NBCUniversal was at 11.3%. A year ago, NBCU had a 20.8% number due to the high ratings level achieved from the two-week Summer Olympics. Program ratings were also higher. NBC had a 21.4 for all L7 viewing when it came to total viewers.

Brian Wieser, senior research analyst for Pivotal, says total TV “use” was down 5.9% for the month for 18-49 viewing versus the same period a year before. This is due to difficult comparisons, given the Olympics.

Share of TV use includes the increase in connected TV viewing -- Roku, Apple TV, and Google’s Chromecast -- up 46% to a 12.4%.