Holiday features account for more than a third of movie viewing time in December

A wealth of holiday titles, both new and old, make up more than a third of the month’s total movie viewing, whether it’s marathons on linear TV or the deep libraries of the streaming platforms. While the exact percentage may vary a bit year to year, the one-third share of viewing benchmark has been consistent.

Holiday fan favorites

Looking across the past four Decembers, we see many of the same titles appear in the top 10, even if their positions may change a bit. These include A Christmas Story (consistently boosted by TBS and TNT’s annual “24 Hours of A Christmas Story” marathon), Elf, the Grinch films (both the live action and animated versions), The Santa Clause, and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. But one movie in particular has almost always topped the list: Home Alone. This 1990 classic, with strong cross-generational appeal, has been the top-viewed holiday film in three of the last four Decembers.

In 2024, it was unseated from the number one slot by the Prime Video original Red One, starring Dwayne Johnson. The streaming platform had previously cracked the top 10 the prior year with Eddie Murphy’s Candy Cane Lane, and has had the most success among native streamers in competing with the classic fan favorites. While Netflix hasn’t quite cracked the top 10 yet, it has had a few titles in the running the past couple of years, such as The Christmas Chronicles and That Christmas.

Finally, we’d be remiss not to mention the perennial debate about whether the 1988 action thriller Die Hard is a Christmas movie. Well, it seems viewers have embraced it as one, so we’ve included it as part of our analysis. And, in December of 2024, it landed just outside our top 10 rankings at number 11.

What’s trending so far this year?

We have already seen holiday titles popping up in our weekly top 10 streaming rankings during November, including the favorite classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas as well as newer Netflix originals A Merry Little Ex-Mas and Champagne Problems.

Stay tuned for updates coming in January. We will revisit these trends as the rankings for December settle—it will be interesting to see how much tradition factors into the results this time around.

Stay on top of more TV trends

Stay connected with our Top 10 all year long to track the most-watched titles in streaming, linear TV, and more. Interested in deeper insights? Check out our TV and Streaming audience measurement solutions.

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Horror makes (small) gains in October viewership

With the help of Gracenote’s genre data, we took a look at linear and streaming movie viewing over the past four Octobers to see what percentage of total watch time horror films contributed. We found a small but notable increase over time, with a bump of nearly one full percentage point between October 2023 and 2024. This reflects an ever-widening array of options for viewers.

Horror fan favorites

Getting into the individual horror titles, we’d be remiss not to mention the persistent presence of the franchise named after the very holiday being celebrated: Halloween. Whether it is the 1978 original or the more recent reboot films, the Halloween series and its villain Michael Myers are certainly viewer favorites. One of the films in this franchise has nearly always been the most-viewed horror movie on linear TV in October, even if it doesn’t make the combined linear and streaming top 10.

October 2022 marked a notable shift toward streaming exclusive titles, with Halloween Ends (Peacock), The Curse of Bridge Hollow (Netflix), Mr. Harrigan’s Phone (Netflix), and Hellraiser (Hulu) taking the top four slots. The following year, Disney’s Haunted Mansion, which had just come off of a summer box office run, dominated the rankings. The feature’s strong performance demonstrated that more comedic, family-friendly titles had equal appeal as true horror films.

In October 2024, no individual title reached the same heights as the prior year, which is a testament to how viewing was more evenly distributed across films. Still, streaming exclusives occupied the top two slots again—Don’t Move (Netflix) and Salem’s Lot (HBO Max).

Top horror movies by demographic

So how did different demographics influence the most-viewed movies rankings in comparison? While there are some differences among the various groups, more often than not, the same title will resonate across viewership. While horror may seem like a niche genre on the surface, the demographic data overall suggests it to be an audience unifier this time of year.

Horror trending in 2025

Let’s close with a look at which scary features are resonating with horror fans so far this year. Across the first week of October, viewers are connecting with a healthy mix of new and nostalgic horror titles, and they’re utilizing both linear and streaming channels to do so. Fresh off a summer box office run, M3gan 2.0 (Peacock) takes the top slot, but is followed closely by 1996’s Scream, which is available on both linear and streaming channels. Digital broadcast networks have gotten in on the action this year as well; Comet is on the board with 1962 classic Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, while Bounce helped push The Intruder into the top 10.

All in all, horror films continue to be a growing part of television and streaming libraries, especially this time of year. This is great news for fans of the genre, giving them more options, both new and old, to enjoy even more spooky thrills and jumpscares from the comfort of home.

Stay on top of more TV trends

Stay connected with our Top 10, tracking the most-watched titles in streaming, linear TV, and more. Interested in deeper insights? Check out our TV and Streaming audience measurement solutions.

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The rise of CTV and ad-supported streaming

Ten years ago, streaming was a small portion of overall TV viewing and largely subscription based. Today, viewership varies by country, but streaming continues to grow its share of overall viewing. As of March 2025, streaming represented 43.8% of overall TV time in the U.S.—an increase of 10 points in two years. More broadly, CTV—encompassing devices like smart televisions, streaming media players and gaming consoles—is fundamentally reshaping how we access and engage with video content.

As the channel has grown, so too have advertising opportunities. The streaming landscape has become increasingly competitive, and ad-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) services have been one way for platforms to stand out with audiences. Faced with subscription fatigue and a desire for more affordable entertainment options, consumers are increasingly turning to platforms that offer content in exchange for viewing advertisements. In Nielsen’s recently released Ad Supported Gauge, 72.4% of the time U.S. viewers spend with television is ad-supported, and streaming represents 42.4% of that viewing. 

This presents a significant opportunity for marketers. In Nielsen’s most recent Annual Marketing Report, a substantial 56% of marketers globally report planning to increase their spending on over-the-top (OTT)/CTV in 2025, representing a slight uptick from 53% in 2024. Notably, CTV stands out as one of the few digital channels where planned spending increases have grown year-over-year, with the most significant growth concentrated in the Americas.

CTV is a potent advertising platform

For marketers, the allure of CTV extends beyond its expanding audience base. With enhanced reach and targeting capabilities, the channel offers brands the chance to connect with specific demographic and audience segments based on their viewing patterns, demographic profiles and declared interests. This improved targeting can help marketers more efficiently allocate advertising budgets and drive potentially higher returns on investment from television campaigns. 

But not all marketers are making the same investments in the channel. In our annual survey, the Automotive and Travel & Tourism sectors had the most marketers globally planning to increase their investments in the channel, followed closely by Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals and Financial Services. Interestingly, fewer marketers in the Retail sector indicated plans to increase spend, which is likely due to existing investments in CTV/streaming. 

Embracing the era of convergent TV

As marketers rush to invest in CTV, they’ll need to consider how the channel fits into their overall media mix. The traditional boundaries between linear television and CTV are becoming increasingly blurred, and today’s consumers are fluidly transitioning between traditional broadcasts and various streaming services. For marketers, this necessitates adopting a holistic approach to television advertising, moving beyond isolated strategies for individual platforms. 

Yet only 32% of global marketers currently report measuring their media spending holistically across both digital and traditional channels. This figure is a concerning decline from the previous year and is even more pronounced in Latin America (29%) and Europe (23%). Addressing this critical measurement gap is paramount for marketers to accurately assess the effectiveness of their converged TV strategies and justify further investment in this rapidly evolving space. 

To help better understand how marketers are allocating budget across media, we recently added measurement across 20 individual platforms totalling 95% coverage of the U.S. CTV ad market to Nielsen Ad Intel. This data will provide transparency for marketers to uncover where brands are investing in CTV, which platforms are capturing the most ad spend, and how competitors are allocating their budgets across all major CTV platforms. As we can see in the table below, several consumer packaged goods (CPG) and retail products are outspending on CTV when compared to linear TV ad spend in the first quarter of 2025. 

Navigating the CTV landscape: Key considerations for global marketers

As you evaluate adding CTV to your marketing mix—or optimize your current strategies on the channel—consider the following:

• Experiment with innovative ad formats: Explore the expanding array of CTV ad formats, including interactive advertisements and branded content opportunities, to enhance audience engagement and improve brand recall.
• Harness the power of advanced targeting: Leverage the sophisticated targeting capabilities offered by CTV platforms to reach advanced audience segments with highly relevant messaging, thereby maximizing the efficiency of your advertising spend.
• Strategically align with your marketing objectives: While CTV offers powerful performance-driven targeting options, it also remains a valuable platform for brand building, particularly as premium content, such as live sports, increasingly migrates to streaming platforms. Ensure your CTV strategy is aligned with your specific marketing objectives, whether they are focused on driving conversions or enhancing brand awareness.
• Integrate CTV into your broader marketing ecosystem: Avoid treating CTV as an isolated channel. Develop a cohesive and integrated strategy that seamlessly incorporates CTV with linear TV and other relevant digital touchpoints to deliver a unified and consistent brand experience.
• Prioritize robust measurement and actionable analytics: Invest in comprehensive measurement solutions that provide a holistic view of campaign performance across both linear and CTV. Emphasize the accuracy, efficiency, and interoperability of your chosen measurement tools.

Learn more about how global marketers are navigating some of the biggest trends and challenges in today’s advertising landscape in Nielsen’s 2025 Annual Marketing Report.

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1. Linear TV still represents the majority of the ad-supported opportunity.

Looking at our most recent classic Gauge report–which represents total use of the television set–you can see that linear TV and streaming are rather close to one another in terms of share. Broadcast and cable combined represent 44.5% of time spent, and streaming represents 43.8%. 
However, when we peel back the onion a bit more and look strictly at ad-supported viewing, we can see that gap gets significantly wider. In our recently released Ad Supported Gauge, broadcast and cable combined account for 57.6% of time spent, while streaming is at 42.4%. So, while streaming certainly continues to gain ground, when it comes to the opportunity to see ads, linear still has a significant lead.

2. TV’s multiplatform opportunity has come into focus.

Streaming permanently changed the television landscape over the last 10 years, and it’s easy to think of things as a competition between the streaming world and the world of broadcast and cable TV. But, when you look at recent viewing data, it turns out it’s more of a “yes, and” conversation (to borrow a phrase from the improv comedy world).

Certainly there are moments when each platform shines: Thanksgiving football and the Super Bowl on broadcast; New Year’s college football on cable; Stranger Things and Suits on Netflix. However, we’ve also seen how the different platforms can work together to really meet different viewers where they are. The 2024 Summer Games are one clear cut example: NBCU’s Peacock delivered live streams and highlights by sport throughout the competition, but NBC’s primetime coverage still saw substantial increases compared to the prior Summer Olympics. This year’s Super Bowl is another: Tubi was able to draw a different but complementary audience relative to FOX’s broadcast.

There are more subtle examples as well. The first season of CBS’s Fire Country launched on Netflix just before the third season premiered on broadcast, and likely reached viewers who hadn’t seen the show previously. Then, when the third season opener landed on Paramount+, it saw a 55% bump in viewership compared to the second season premiere.

And even if we look across an individual company’s television assets and examine viewing by age demographics, we can see where there are opportunities to reach different audiences within a single portfolio. Disney is one example of that dynamic; NBCUniversal and Paramount would be two others.

3. Streaming has gotten increasingly competitive—there are more hits on more platforms.

Netflix remains a powerhouse in the streaming world, but as other platforms mature and content strategies evolve, we’re seeing a wider range of titles land in our top 10 rankings. Five years ago, Netflix carried eight of the 10 top streaming assets, but this past March, we saw a total of seven different companies score entries on the chart. This creates more opportunities for brands to be part of the cultural conversation.

It’s also important to see this in context as originals that attract a big audience tend to peak quickly whereas multi-season titles with deep libraries (e.g. NCIS, Grey’s Anatomy) are critical to hold audiences over time.

4. Sports represent an increasing share of linear TV viewing—but are also driving big numbers for streaming.

In the four year daily viewing trend above, you can see the big spikes in viewing on broadcast and cable around major sports events. But it isn’t just the big moments that are attracting viewers; in fact, sports content has increased its share of viewing on linear TV in each of the last four years. Entertainment content retains the lion’s share, but in 2024, sports approached 20% of total viewing time among adults 25-54. Given how powerful live sports are for both fan engagement and as a promotional platform, it will continue to be a major asset for networks.

All that being said, streamers are certainly part of the sports conversation now, and are seeing it pay dividends. Thursday Night Football on Prime Video averaged over 14 million viewers this past season, and the Christmas Day NFL games on Netflix hit new streaming highs and helped drive total streaming viewership to over 50 billion minutes for the first time on a single day.

5. Multi-language content and deep libraries make streaming a great place to reach diverse audiences.

As we’ve noted in our Black and AANHPI Diverse Intelligence Series reports this year, multicultural consumers are essential for brands to connect with. Linear TV certainly still offers options to reach them–for example, broadcast is particularly important for Hispanic homes–but the depth and breadth of streaming options available today allows audiences to really dig in.

Since Netflix and YouTube carry a lot of international content, it’s not surprising that they represent a significant share of time among diverse audiences, particularly Hispanic and Asian viewers. The two platforms account for about a third of total television time for both groups.

Generally speaking, streaming more closely mirrors the makeup of the total TV universe than linear. But looking at individual platforms reveals additional layers of opportunity. We’ve touched on Netflix and YouTube already, but other examples include The Roku Channel and Tubi, which strongly over-index among Black audiences.

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One particularly powerful approach is the use of geographically segmented data that goes beyond a national view, diving into specifics of how, when and where different audience segments consume local television content in various markets. In the U.S., the media industry often refers to Designated Market Areas (DMAs®)—proprietary geographic regions exclusively defined by Nielsen to represent specific television viewing areas. 

The need for DMAs® emerged in the 1950s when television began to dominate the media landscape.¹ As TV stations proliferated across the country, marketers and advertisers faced a growing need to understand and define television markets for more targeted advertising purposes. Over time, this system has become a widely used resource for marketers and advertisers seeking to better understand regional audience patterns.

What exactly are DMAs®?

Designated Market Areas (DMAs®) are a proprietary geography defined by Nielsen. They are non-overlapping geographic regions that group counties based on television viewing areas. Each DMA® represents an area in which local television stations capture a dominant share of viewing. There are currently 210 DMA® regions in total, covering the entire continental U.S., Hawaii, and parts of Alaska. Each year, we review all DMA® regions to determine if we should add or remove any counties from a DMA® region. These defined areas are used extensively in the television industry for audience measurement, advertising planning and media buying.

How do DMAs® help advertisers?

For advertisers, certain regional metrics—such as market size, ratings, viewership patterns and consumption habits—have become instrumental in media planning and buying. Here’s how DMAs® contribute to more strategic and efficient advertising:

• Targeted advertising: DMAs® enable advertisers to focus campaigns on specific geographic areas. Within these defined markets, the messaging tends to align more closely with the preferences and needs of the audience within those regions. Such precise targeting helps create more relevant and engaging advertising, potentially leading to higher response rates and better ROI.

• Optimized media buying: Understanding each DMA®’s unique characteristics, including viewership patterns and media consumption habits, helps advertisers make more informed decisions about ad placement timing and location. Leveraging this knowledge, they can maximize their reach while minimizing wasted impressions.

• Budget allocation: A clear understanding of the size and consumer profile of each market enables more efficient use of marketing budgets. Such insight facilitates strategic resource allocation, balancing high-impact campaigns in larger, costlier markets with targeted efforts in smaller, less saturated regions to reach specific consumer groups cost-effectively.

• Performance measurement: DMAs® offer a standardized geographical framework for comparing advertising campaign performance across different regions. Leveraging DMA®-level data provides insight into the areas where a campaign is performing well or falling short, offering a clear picture of its effectiveness.

What makes DMAs® essential for networks?

For broadcasters and networks, DMAs® are key geographic regions defined for television audience analysis. They help determine:

• Local audience measurement: DMAs® serve as the fundamental units for measuring local TV viewership, making them indispensable for networks and broadcasters. They offer granular, market-specific data on viewing habits and preferences, enabling their value to advertisers with precise, localized audience metrics.
• Programming decisions: By defining markets, DMAs® can help inform local programming decisions. Broadcasters and networks can better understand what programming to meet local audience preferences and demands, ensuring they provide relevant content to maximize viewership.
• Market size and reach: Each DMA® is ranked based on the number of TV households in each market. By understanding the size of each marketplace, local networks and broadcasters can make smarter decisions on ad inventory pricing and understand the context of their reach compared to competitors. 

Relevance of DMAs® in the digital age

DMAs® are still highly relevant in the digital age, and in many ways, their importance has only grown. The foundational geographic segmentation provided by DMAs® remains essential for understanding regional viewing patterns and audience behavior. Even with the rise of digital platforms, consumers in different regions have distinct preferences and television consumption habits that affect how they engage with content and advertising. Far from being obsolete, DMAs® are a key component of a data-driven advertising ecosystem.

How does Nielsen help?

Nielsen’s DMA® insights are a game-changer for media buyers and sellers. By providing granular data on what people are actually watching across local markets, Nielsen helps media buyers gain confidence that their ads will reach the right audience, maximizing their impact. Media sellers can leverage this data to accurately value their inventory, demonstrating the true reach and engagement of their content. 

Our unique combination of big data and person-level panel measurement captures the viewing habits of every individual, regardless of when they consume content, from primetime favorites to daytime viewing. The result? A nuanced picture of the local TV. 

Curious how these insights could help maximize your local TV impact? Learn more about your DMA® reporting or get in touch with a Nielsen representative to get an accurate picture of your local audience.

Notes

¹ Ponce de Leon, C. (2015). That’s the Way It Is: A History of Television News in America. The University of Chicago Press.

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Co-viewing—watching TV with at least one other person around—is an integral part of the TV experience and a simple concept to understand, but it’s not easy to measure. As a result, some media planners still use flat co-viewing factors as shortcuts to convert device metrics to individual audiences. What’s a co-viewing factor? Here’s an example: You should expect 1.2 viewers per TV screen at 2PM and 1.5 at 8PM. In today’s fast-changing and highly-fragmented TV marketplace, that is no longer enough.

To illustrate how inadequate flat co-viewing factors are, let’s take a look at co-viewing activity during sports programming over the past couple of years.

Co-viewing for sports programs varies greatly over time

Figure 1 shows the co-viewing rate (the percentage of total viewing time spent co-viewing rather than viewing alone) for all TV viewers in the U.S. from September 2022 to August 2024, across all sports programming and regardless of platform (broadcast, cable and streaming). The month-to-month variations are substantial, dipping as low as 37% in August 2023 and reaching close to 50% in January and February of 2024.
The peaks correspond to tentpole sporting events, like the Super Bowl or Copa América, but marquee events taking place outside of the U.S. led to comparatively poor co-viewing rates. That doesn’t mean that the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar and the 2023 Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand had poor ratings in the U.S.—quite the opposite, in fact—but it’s more difficult to gather family and friends to watch the matches when they’re broadcast in the middle of the night or in the early morning. As for March Madness, it seemed to attract more alone viewing than average, even though we can see a small bump in co-viewing associated with the record-breaking 2024 tournaments.

Major co-viewing gaps by demographics

Co-viewing rates vary greatly by demographic group too. For the same two-year time period, figure 2 shows a 20-point gap in co-viewing for sports programs between Hispanic and Black viewers, and a 10 to 15-point gap between younger and older viewers.

Household size is a factor (Hispanic viewers live in larger households), but there are cultural factors at play as well. For instance, young adults might be more willing to go out and watch sports broadcasts with groups of friends. They’re watching considerably less TV than their older counterparts, especially linear TV, but the little they’re watching, they’re doing as a group.

How does sports compare to other program genres?

In figure 3, we’re widening the lens a bit to compare co-viewing during sports programs to co-viewing for other top program genres like dramas, news and variety shows.

We can see that over that same two-year time period, children’s shows consistently produced more co-viewing than sports—not surprising considering that kids, especially young kids, often have a parent around when they’re watching TV—and showed more stability over time as well. Game shows performed really well too, a good reminder of the effect that streaming has had in recent years in broadening the genre’s appeal beyond its traditional (read: older) linear TV audience. And the rest of the top programming genres stayed within a narrow co-viewing band just above the 30% mark.

Key implications for advertisers and media owners

What conclusions should you draw from the above insights?

• First and foremost, there’s no such thing as a flat co-viewing factor. That’s clearly evident when we look at sports, but there are subtle variations for other genres as well (and more so if we start to drill down at the program level).
• If you’re an advertiser planning to target a specific demographic group or a more advanced audience, you should throw your co-viewing assumptions out the window and get your hands on co-viewing insights based on actual real-life behavior for that target group.
• If you’re a media owner, understanding whether people are watching alone or with other people can help you finetune your own shows and improve how you monetize your audiences.

Ready to explore what co-viewing actually looks like in your world?

In a recent blog post, we reviewed how Nielsen’s co-viewing calculations rely on robust people-based measurement solutions inside and outside the house, as well as advanced algorithms to assign viewership to individuals when the only available data comes from devices, as is typically the case with big data from set-top boxes and smart TVs.

Learn more about how and when audiences watch television, or contact us to discover how to use co-viewing to your advantage.

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A top priority for the industry has been the development of a new measurement that could combine the scale of big data with the demographics and statistical accuracy of panel-based measurement to generate better data quality.

Nielsen has spent years working out the best way to combine panels and big data, developing data partnerships with key players and thoroughly testing our new methodology in collaboration with industry stakeholders. Here are three findings that convinced us that the harmonious combination of big data and panel data was indeed the future of TV measurement.

With big data calibrated by Nielsen’s gold-standard people panels… 

1. Zero ratings are reduced across key demos (SCALE)
2. The average relative error drops (ACCURACY)
3. Standard deviation decreases (STABILITY)

Let’s review what we mean by big data and what panels have to do with it.

Big data and panels: Better together 

In the TV measurement space, big data refers to return-path data (RPD) from cable and satellite set-top boxes, as well as automatic content recognition (ACR) data from internet-connected smart TVs. How big is big data? Thanks to strategic data partnerships with companies like Comcast, DirecTV, Dish Network, Roku and Vizio, Nielsen currently has access to granular data from 75 million devices (and 45 million households) in the U.S. alone.

It’s a massive dataset, but it doesn’t capture TV viewing at the individual level—only at the device level. This makes it impossible to determine whether anyone is actually watching TV when the device is on or who the viewers and co-viewers might be at any point in time. To say nothing of the millions of households that don’t own any of those devices, only stream, watch TV over the air or have very different viewing habits than big data homes.

That’s where person-level panels come in. We’ve examined why panels still matter and how they should be used as a source of truth to overcome the limitations of big data. We followed those recommendations to develop the new National and Local TV currency for media buying and selling.

For instance, when we analyze RPD or ACR data at Nielsen today, we’re able to identify what devices are part of our panels and compare the tuning data in those homes to the individual viewing behavior captured by our meters. By using our panels as a source of truth, we’ve developed robust methods to calibrate big data, assign viewing to the right individuals, and project audience estimates to the entire TV population, not just those in the big data dataset.

There are many benefits to this approach. Here are three that stood out in our analyses to-date.

Scale: Zero ratings are reduced across key demos

When big data first emerged in the TV space, the immediate reaction from the industry was that it could help address one of its most vexing problems: zero-rated programs.

Thousands of TV shows have audiences that are too small to be detected by panel-based measurement, even with a panel of over 100,000 viewers. To give you an example, there were 362,168 telecasts in the first-quarter of 2023 across broadcast, cable and syndicated TV, and 13.9% of those telecasts showed zero viewers between the ages of 35 and 49 in any of our national and local TV panels. 

But when we used our new Big Data + Panel methodology to examine those same telecasts, we found only 458 with no P35-49 viewers at all, or 0.1% of all telecasts that quarter. The rest were perfectly legitimate options for media buying, possibly with unique audience compositions.

In other words, our enhanced measurement can eliminate virtually all cases of zero-rating for that age group, with similar results across all other traditional age targets: 99.1% for P35-49, 98.4% for P18-34, and 99.6% for P50-64. 

This is a win-win for media buyers and sellers: Sellers have more advertising inventory to monetize; and buyers have more options with niche audiences to reach their targets. 

Accuracy: Average relative error drops

A key part of the process of blending big data and panel data is the application of calibration factors to every program to bring the aggregate audience in line with the panel at the station/daypart/demo level. Once demographics and viewers have been modeled, we use the big data to measure itself, and we compare the findings to those from our panel-based currency to inform the calibration factors.

This has the effect of smoothing out the minute-by-minute audience levels and improving the accuracy of audience estimates compared to a panel-only solution.

We measured how this new Big Data + Panel calibration method performed against the existing panel-based currency in the New York designated market area (DMA) in May 2023 and found that the average relative error for audience estimates in that market decreased anywhere between 10% (for the early fringe daypart) and 25% (for primetime and late fringe). 

Better accuracy means that media buyers and sellers can start transacting with more confidence.

Stability: Standard deviation decreases

In that same market and for the same month of May 2023, Nielsen examined the impact of the new currency on the stability of audience estimates for the 6AM news shows.

National broadcast and cable news programs tend to draw loyal followers day in and day out; the same is supposed to be true for local news shows, but it’s always been difficult to verify considering the size of some of our local TV panels. Local stations have struggled to understand whether day-to-day variations in audience size are the result of actual fluctuations or an artifact of panel-based measurement.

Looking closely at two separate 6AM news shows in the New York area, we found that the standard deviation of their audience size over the course of the month was 36% lower with the new currency than with the panel-only currency as big data brings stability to estimates by reducing the impact of a single panel home. 

How will our enhanced measurement impact your business? 

No more zero-ratings, better accuracy and much improved stability. What’s not to like? We’ve been refining our new TV currency for years now, and now as the only accredited, Big Data + Panel solution with persons-level granularity, the media industry can trade on accurate, reliable measurement with confidence. We sincerely believe that it’s going to open a new chapter for TV measurement and benefit all stakeholders.

To learn more about it and assess its impact on your business, please get in touch with our experts and discover the power of Big Data + Panel measurement.

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For nearly 20 years, streaming has transformed the media landscape and revolutionized the way audiences watch television. With more streaming content available to be consumed on more apps and services than ever before, audiences are shifting more of their total TV time to streaming. Consider this: In May 2021, streaming accounted for about 26% of Americans’ total time spent watching TV, and that number has grown to over 43% as of December 2024. During that time, total TV usage has remained relatively steady; meanwhile streaming usage has skyrocketed.

Audiences spent nearly 14 trillion minutes streaming in 2024, which equates to about 9.7 billion days, or 26.5 million years’ worth.

To help the media industry better understand the key trends driving streaming’s growth, Nielsen has released our annual “Streaming Unwrapped” report sharing yearly streaming viewership since 2020. This year, we’re expanding the report to include additional viewing categories, and renaming it the ARTEY Awards. Named for Nielsen’s founder, Arthur C. Nielsen, and an acronym for “Audience Rated Television Entertainment of the Year,” we’re recognizing the year’s most-watched TV shows and movies.

For the 2024 ARTEYS, we focused solely on streaming programs, which are measured and ranked based on total viewing minutes. Within streaming, there are many different content types. We recognized the following:

–Top New Streaming Original Series

–Top Overall Streaming Programs

–Most Binged Streaming Title

–ARTEY Legacy Award

Top New Streaming Original Series of 2024

At the beginning of 2024, the entertainment industry was still dealing with the effects of the Hollywood writer and actor strikes, which impacted the flow of new TV content for much of last year. The result was a slew of new original series that debuted across streaming platforms, in addition to seasonal premieres from established favorites. The ARTEY Awards for Top New Streaming Original Series recognize streaming titles in drama, comedy and unscripted genres that were introduced in 2024 and received the most viewing.

Top New Original Drama Series

ARTEY WINNER: Fallout, Prime Video, 11.95 billion minutes
Prime Video’s sci-fi-action-drama Fallout debuted on the platform in April and racked up 2.9 billion viewing minutes in its first few days of release. It accumulated nearly 12 billion total viewing minutes throughout the rest of the year, ultimately placing fifth among all streaming originals in 2024. Fallout, which only has eight episodes in its first season, was also the fifth most-watched streaming original among adults 18-34.

RUNNER-UP: Fool Me Once, Netflix, 10.89 billion minutes
Netflix’s British import Fool Me Once was second among new drama series with 10.9 billion viewing minutes in 2024. Compared to Fallout on Prime Video, Fool Me Once drew a bit of an older audience, getting 57% of its minutes from adults 50+.

Top New Original Comedy Series

ARTEY WINNER: Nobody Wants This, Netflix, 4.90 billion minutes
Netflix rom-com Nobody Wants This enjoyed three weeks atop Nielsen’s streaming charts following its release in late September, and went on to accumulate nearly 5 billion minutes through the end of year. While the show’s audience skewed toward women (69%), it was fairly balanced from an age perspective, coming in at 51% adults 18-49 and 43% adults 50+.

RUNNER UP: A Man on the Inside, Netflix, 2.94 billion minutes
Netflix’s new comedy series A Man On The Inside was released in late November and managed to accumulate nearly 3 billion viewing minutes in just a few weeks. Starring Ted Danson as a retired professor turned private investigator, A Man On The Inside appealed to an older audience with 62% of viewers aged 50+.

Top New Original Unscripted / Documentary Series

ARTEY WINNER: American Nightmare, Netflix, 3.57 billion minutes
This Netflix true-crime docuseries premiered on the platform with three episodes in January 2024. American Nightmare drove more than 1 billion viewing minutes in its opening week, and its viewing total reached over 3.5 billion throughout the year. The docuseries resonated most with women who made up 62% of the audience, as well as younger adult viewers, as 56% of the audience fell into the 18-49 age range.

RUNNER UP: Unlocked: A Jail Experiment, Netflix, 2.50 billion minutes
Unlocked: A Jail Experiment premiered on Netflix in April and finished the year with 2.5 billion viewing minutes across eight episodes from a fairly diverse audience, with Black viewers accounting for 23% of the viewing total and Hispanic viewers making up 18%. The series also ranked fifth among all unscripted originals in 2024.

While not in the top two for this category, we’re extending an honorable mention for new original unscripted series to a couple of additional titles:

• Hulu’s Secret Lives of Mormon Wives notched 2.14 billion viewing minutes over the last four months of the year after debuting its first eight episodes on the platform in September. The reality series has been renewed for a second season, which is set to be released on the platform this spring, and ABC announced it would begin airing the first season of the show on its linear network in January 2025.
• Beast Games premiered on Prime Video towards the end of December, and despite only three episodes available in the last days of the year, the competition-reality series still managed nearly 700 million minutes of viewing.

2024 Top Overall Streaming Programs

These ARTEY Awards recognize the most-watched streaming titles of the year across original series, acquired series, movies and overall.

Top Overall Streaming Title & Top Acquired Series

ARTEY WINNER: Bluey, 55.62 billion viewing minutes on Disney+
The ARTEY for Top Overall Streaming Title of 2024 goes to the Australian animated series Bluey, which put up over 55.6 billion minutes of watch time on Disney+, with 43% of its massive viewing total attributable to kids 2-11. 

RUNNER UP: Grey’s Anatomy, 47.85 billion viewing minutes on Hulu and Netflix
With nearly 48 billion viewing minutes on both Hulu and Netflix in 2024, Grey’s Anatomy and its deep library of over 400 episodes continues to be a crowd favorite in both the streaming and linear TV spaces. Now in its 21st season on ABC, the medical drama created by Shonda Rhimes has been one of the top six most-watched streaming titles in each of the last five years (2020-2024), with over 185 billion minutes viewed in that time.

Top Streaming Original Series

ARTEY WINNER: Bridgerton, Netflix, 21.42 billion viewing minutes
The ARTEY for Top Streaming Original Series in 2024 goes to Netflix’s Bridgerton, which posted over 21 billion viewing minutes in 2024. Netflix released eight new episodes between May and June, which accounted for 56% of Bridgerton’s viewing total. In terms of its performance in Nielsen’s Streaming Top 10, Bridgerton has 11 appearances at No. 1 overall, tying fellow Netflix original series Ozark for the most first place weeks for any streaming original.

RUNNER UP: Love Is Blind, Netflix, 16.45 billion viewing minutes
Love Is Blind benefited from the releases of both its sixth and seventh seasons in 2024, and the two combined accounted for 82% of its 16.5 billion minute total. The show has a balanced audience that closely follows the makeup of the overall TV viewing population at 17% Hispanic, 5% Asian, 16% Black and 61% White, indicating broad appeal.

We’re also extending an honorable mention in this category to Prime Video’s The Boys, which had a stellar year and placed third among originals with 13.6 billion minutes viewed. It was also the top streaming original series among men 18-34 by a significant margin. Additionally, The Boys now holds the distinction of having placed in the overall Streaming Top 10 list more than any other Prime Video title (16 weeks). 

Top Streaming Movie

ARTEY WINNER: Moana, 13.03 billion minutes viewed on Disney+
With over 13 billion viewing minutes accumulated on Disney+ in 2024, Moana finished as the most-watched streaming movie for a second consecutive year. The Disney favorite exhibited a bump in viewership towards the end of the year that coincided with the theatrical release of its sequel, Moana 2. This marks Moana’s most-streamed year ever and solidifies it as the most-streamed movie since 2020.

RUNNER UP: The Super Mario Bros. Movie, 11.72 billion minutes viewed on Netflix
The Super Mario Bros. Movie notched 11.7 billion minutes viewed on Netflix in 2024, with kids 2-11 accounting for 5.7 billion minutes of its total. 

Both Moana and Super Mario Bros. drew strong Hispanic audiences as well, with 25% and 29.6% of viewing, respectively, attributable to Hispanic viewers. 

Most-Binged Title

For this category, we examined streaming titles with extensive libraries (50+ episodes) and limited the calculations to viewers who had spent at least one episode’s worth of time with the show (20 min. or longer). While half-hour programs tend to be more binge-able, the level of dedication from audiences in viewing to programs across the board was astonishing.

ARTEY WINNER: The Big Bang Theory, 265.5 episodes per viewer on Max
The Big Bang Theory has a total of 281 episodes available on Max, and dedicated viewers averaged just over 265 episodes each over the course of the year! (Note, this does not mean they watched 265 unique episodes, just that they spent the equivalent of 265 episodes worth of time). This put the show head and shoulders above the competition for the bingeing crown. Coming in at No. 7 overall among this year’s top streaming titles, Big Bang tallied 29.1 billion minutes in 2024, 58% of which were driven by adults 18-49.

RUNNER UP: American Dad!, 175.3 episodes per viewer on Hulu
Adult animation series are extremely popular in the streaming-scape, with Family Guy, Bob’s Burgers, The Simpsons and South Park all finishing in the top 30 for total minutes in 2024. Also among them was Binge Category runner-up American Dad!, which averaged 175 episodes per viewer throughout the year on Hulu.

Legacy Award

The ARTEY Legacy Award recognizes enduring, timeless programs that continue to entertain and captivate audiences today.

ARTEY WINNER: Little House on the Prairie, 13.25 billion minutes on Peacock
Little House on the Prairie celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2024, having aired on NBC from 1974 to 1983. Whether it was nostalgia surrounding the anniversary milestone or the appeal of westerns among TV viewers, the show earned 13.3 billion minutes of viewing time on Peacock across the year. Adults 35-64 accounted for 63% of Little House’s overall viewing total, and it over-indexed among Black viewers, which comprised over 17% of its total viewership.

ARTEY WINNER: Gunsmoke, 10.23 billion minutes on Peacock / Paramount+
Gunsmoke was adapted for television in 1955 and ran for 20 seasons on CBS where it ranked as a top Nielsen-rated show for several years. Now close to 70 years since its debut, Gunsmoke is still delighting audiences across both scheduled (linear) TV and streaming platforms. The classic western series earned over 10 billion minutes of watch time in 2024 across Peacock and Paramount+. Its audience consistently skews toward the 50 and over crowd, and its viewership is strong among Black viewers who made up 36% of watch time in 2024. 

2024 Top 10 Streaming Programs and Movies

Source: Nielsen Streaming Content Ratings based on the Nielsen U.S. National Television panel. Total viewing minutes based on Persons 2+. Streaming platforms: Amazon Prime Video, AppleTV+, Disney+, Hulu, Max, Netflix, Paramount+ and Peacock.

Interval: 01/01/2024-12/29/2024.

Note: The figure for total annual streaming minutes in 2024 was originally reported as 12 trillion minutes and has since been updated to 14 trillion minutes.

Want more insights into the time viewers spend watching streaming video content? Check out Nielsen’s Streaming Content Ratings.

The post The Nielsen ARTEY Awards: 2024 Streaming Unwrapped appeared first on Nielsen.

A quick read each month, The Gauge is full of juicy insights on the state of television: the ebb and flow of TV programming for both subscription-based and advertising supported, the impact of tentpole events and blockbuster releases, a running tally of the top streaming platforms on the market, and many more details to help brands and media companies understand what audiences are watching today. 

If you’re like us, you live for the details. There’s nothing like diving into the data and spotting a new opportunity before anyone else. But it can also be incredibly helpful to take a step back from time to time and look at the bigger picture. And when we look at the data from the past few months, one trend stands out: Television is now a converged experience.

The age of media convergence

Where is the line between streaming and linear TV these days?

Some of the most successful streaming programs in recent memory have been shows licensed from broadcast and cable TV, like Friends, Seinfeld or Suits.

It’s not a new phenomenon. Netflix drew fans and accolades with AMC’s Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead long before originals like House of Cards and Orange is the New Black. Streaming platforms have long been an opportunity for new generations of fans to rediscover big broadcast shows. But the convergence we see today between streaming platforms and linear TV goes beyond the syndication of linear TV’s enormous back catalog.

Take Young Sheldon. The beloved Big Bang Theory prequel had its series finale this Spring after seven seasons. We reported in our May 2024 report of The Gauge that the show earned 6 billion viewing minutes for the month across broadcast (CBS), cable (TBS and Nick-At-Nite) and streaming (Paramount+, Netflix and Max). Its series finale on CBS drew 11.74 million viewers (live + 7).

What makes Young Sheldon stand out from other linear TV crossovers is its simultaneous multi-platform success. Many series wind down on linear TV before breaking through on streaming platforms, but the 6 billion minutes Young Sheldon garnered in May 2024 were split almost exactly in half between traditional linear channels and streaming. Its success on linear TV fed its success on streaming platforms, and vice versa.

An evolution years in the making

Way back in 1999, NBC Research Chief Horst Stipp was witnessing the convergence of TVs and PCs and contemplating what type of multimedia future was in the offing. He wasn’t sure at the time whether the new devices would be “television sets with computer functions (TVPCs) or computers with TV reception facilities (PCTVs),” but he knew that bringing about real change would require the convergence of technologies, companies and consumer behavior.

Today, the impact of new technologies on the TV landscape is very clear. Broadband, streaming and smart TVs have upended how people watch television content. Media companies are forging new alliances to optimize licensing deals and meet viewers where they are. The Media Distributor Gauge we launched in April shows how much convergence has already occurred at the top. All that remained was a convergence of consumer behavior, and that’s what we’re seeing now with programs like Young Sheldon.

An antidote to media fragmentation

It’s not the only example. The April 7th NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship game drew 18.9 million viewers on ABC and ESPN, and the Women’s Final Four took four of the top six spots in April’s cable TV rankings and contributed to a 28% jump in cable sports viewing that month. The tournament’s availability on dozens of online platforms didn’t hurt the ABC broadcast, it helped.

And in late June / early July, the Euro 2024 and Copa América broke viewership records thanks to simultaneous broadcasts on Fox, Univision, the Fox Sports app and TelevisaUnivision’s streaming platform Vix. 

The media industry has long lamented the fragmentation of the TV universe because it saw audiences as a zero-sum game. The fear was that if there was another way to watch a show, it would mean that the audience would split, and therefore become less attractive (smaller and harder to reach) to potential advertisers. But fans who watch Young Sheldon on CBS and on Paramount+ don’t share the same profile. By embracing fragmentation and building convergent TV offerings, media companies can raise the visibility of their programs across a wider and more diverse audience. And that’s music to a marketer’s ears.

Measuring media convergence

“Television is no longer confined to tidy channels and specific screens,” Nielsen’s Head of Global Marketing Alison Gensheimer noted in a recent op-ed. “Is YouTube TV? What about FAST channels, or shows you watch on a phone? Definitions change depending on who you talk to, and I’m starting to wonder if it even matters. For advertisers, the important question—now and forever—is where the audience is. Increasingly, it’s multiple places at once.”

What does that mean for measurement? Now more than ever, you need to know how your shows are performing on each and every platform, and you need to be able to compare measurements across all channels and platforms. The only way to design a synergistic programming strategy and turn convergence into a competitive advantage is to have all the cards in hand.

For more convergent TV insights, explore the latest Gauge release. 

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