According to the latest Nielsen report, streaming was the absolute king when it came to holiday viewing.
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From Aug. to Oct. 2024, broadcast TV was winning back some of its market share. That came to a screeching halt in November as it lost a sliver of ground, and the streaming companies did some adjusting.
Netflix took a massive leap to 8.5% from last month’s 7.7% of all viewing. Prime Video hit a new all-time high at 4%, as did YouTube as it 11.1% of the market.
Overall, all of streaming jumped up to 43.3% of the market while broadcast dropped from 23.7% to 22.4%. This could be at least partially accounted for by the networks going into reruns during the holiday season.
Nielsen The Gauge December 2024
Even Max, Paramount Plus, and Peacock saw some modest gains as each of them went up by .1%. Combined they still only account for 4.2% of the market. Seeing how much they spend on original programming and you have a service such as Tubi sitting at 1.7%, which spends a pittance compared to them, and it’s difficult to justify these services existing on their own.
Some form of merger seems inevitable with these numbers. Why Paramount Plus hasn’t found a way to incorporate Pluto TV – which it owns – in a meaningful way is the true mystery of the moment. The two combined add up to 2.3% and would finally propel them up the list by a decent amount. There have been rumors of Max and Peacock being in talks, which would combine for 2.8%, which, while significant, would still see them lagging the likes of Hulu. With Prime Video integrating Freevee, Paramount is going to have to consider a move.
It’s clear TV consumption habits are changing at a rapid pace, and some companies are going to need to learn some hard lessons and soon.
IMAGE SOURCE: Shutterstock – Streaming – Poxima Studio
