March Madness and ‘The White Lotus’ propel WBD to top viewing gains: Nielsen

College hoops and a sun-soaked murder mystery franchise made unlikely teammates in March, pushing Warner Bros. Discovery to the month’s biggest viewing bump, per Nielsen’s Media Distributor Gauge.Biggest monthly movers: WBD’s share of U.S. TV use climbed 3%—its biggest jump in five months—as March Madness games on TBS, TNT, and truTV kept remote controls glued to its channels. Over on Max, viewership jumped 6%—the sharpest rise of any streamer—thanks to 4.5 billion minutes of The White Lotus binges and a 2.3-billion-minute debut for hospital noir The Pitt. NCAA games also streamed on Max, giving WBD a younger demo boost.YouTube stretches its lead: Alphabet’s video giantdidn’t blink, setting a fresh record with 12% of total TV time and locking down the top spot for a second straight month.Competitive programming: Disney held No. 2 at 10.5%, lifted by an Oscar night simulcast across ABC and Hulu, plus the return of American Idol and ABC World News Tonight. Paramount leaped into third crossing 8% on its CBS share of March Madness and a drama one-two punch from Tracker and Matlock, while NBCUniversal, Netflix, and Fox rounded out the pack. In the CTV space, The Roku Channel notched a record at just over 2%.Lower yearly perspective: Even with March’s tailwind, WBD’s numbers trail what it owned a year ago, and Paramount’s market is off from last March’s report, according to Nielsen figures cited by MediaPost.