YouTube, Netflix, Prime Video smash records in Dec 2024, fueled by Christmas holiday, football
According to Nielsen's The Gauge report, Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays remained the key drivers, contributing a 4 percent rise in overall time spent watching television compared with November 2024.
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The holiday season, football and blockbusters drive record highs for YouTube and Over-The-Top (OTT) streaming platforms in December 2024, a report mentioned.
According to Nielsen's The Gauge report, Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays remained the key drivers, contributing a 4 percent rise in overall time spent watching television compared with November 2024.
The report underscored that in total, 2024 included nine days with over 100 billion TV viewing minutes, compared with 13 in 2023.
Further, the report mentioned that Netflix accounted for 8.5% of total TV viewing in December. Netflix benefited from its action thriller film Carry-On, which generated 5.2 billion viewing minutes from Dec. 13 – 29 and achieved the third-most streamed title of the interval. It also received a boost following the Season 2 premiere of Squid Game, which accumulated 4.9 billion viewing minutes in the final week of the interval and also notched the highest weekly total (measured Monday through Sunday) for any streaming title in 2024.
In addition to Netflix, nearly all reported streaming platforms exhibited gains. According to the Neilsen report, YouTube viewing was up 7 percent to propel the platform to a record 11.1 percent share of TV usage. Prime Video reported a 4 percent share of TV, as it benefited from hosting five NFL Thursday Night Football games, including one on Black Friday, during the December interval.
Prime Video also saw success from its new original reality series Beast Games starring Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson, with over 700 million viewing minutes accumulated across its first three episodes.
The broadcast and cable categories were notably football-heavy in December, and each saw monthly increases in sports viewership of 17 percent and 29 percent, respectively, due to games across the NFL, various college bowl games, and the first round of the College Football Playoffs.
