Disney sees biggest multiplatform increase thanks to football and Frosty
TBS and TNT both up more than 20% with college football and holiday films
Amazon up +12% and Netflix up +10% from NFL and originals
Hallmark Channel claims top 5 cable movie slots in December
NEW YORK – January 27, 2026 – Nielsen’s December 2025 Media Distributor Gauge highlights lifts for distributors airing key sports events and movies, both of which drove record-breaking viewership during the peak holiday season. Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, Hallmark, Netflix and Amazon all saw notable gains for the month.
Disney captured the highest multiplatform increase and maintained the No.2 position, up 4% in overall viewing to add 0.2 share points for a total share of 10.7%. This growth was fueled by ESPN, which recorded a 30% viewership increase driven by Monday Night Football, the expanded College Football Playoffs schedule, and College Gameday. Simultaneously, Freeform successfully doubled its November viewing, driven by its robust programming of holiday films like Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty The Snowman.
Warner Bros. Discovery also benefitted from success with its cable networks, with TBS and TNT up 23% and 24%, respectively. These gains were driven by College Football playoff coverage and holiday movie viewership, with A Christmas Story leading the way for TBS. HBO Max also saw a 10% viewing increase, primarily driven by original series It: Welcome To Derry, alongside the continued popularity of The Big Bang Theory and Friends.
Leading the holiday movie genre’s success was The Hallmark Channel, which maintained strong momentum from November and secured the top 5 movie telecasts across cable distributors (in order): She’s Making A List, Single On The 25th, A Suite Holiday Romance, A Make Or Break Holiday and Oy To The World.
As reported in Nielsen’s The Gauge December report, Christmas Day marked the most-streamed day ever with 55.1 billion viewing minutes. The record for Christmas Day was led by NFL coverage on Netflix and Prime Video, with both platforms achieving platform-best record shares in December. Netflix’s coverage of the NFL Christmas Day doubleheader, coupled with the success from the most-streamed original series ever: Stranger Things, propelled Netflix into the third position with a 10% monthly viewing increase. The tandem success gave Netflix an additional 0.7 share points for a record total share of 9.0%.
Two other distributors achieved platform-best shares in December: Amazon with a 4.3% total share and The Roku Channel with a 3.0% total share. Amazon notched a 12% viewing increase in December attributable to Thursday Night Football coverage, a record-setting Christmas Day NFL game and the new season of Fallout. Notably, The Roku Channel has exhibited consistent growth, the platform is up 45% since last December and up 190% compared to December 2023.
Broadcast network affiliate contributions declined this month compared to November, with all major networks down. This decline is largely credited to less high-profile sports coverage, including the absence of Thanksgiving NFL games, a reduced college football schedule on broadcast, and no World Series games. Cable news networks were also down for the month.
The December 2025 interval spanned four weeks, from 12/01/2025 through 12/28/2025. Nielsen reporting follows the broadcast calendar, with weekly intervals beginning on Monday.
About The Gauge™
The Gauge™ is Nielsen’s monthly snapshot of total broadcast, cable and streaming consumption that occurs through a television screen, providing the industry with a holistic look at what audiences are watching. The Gauge was expanded in April 2024 to include The Media Distributor Gauge, which reflects total viewing by media distributor across these categories. Read more about The Gauge methodology and FAQs.
About Nielsen
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