Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

The Gauge: Traditional TV Gets a Boost from Football and News in January 2025

18/02/2025

NYE, Golden Globes and scripted dramas also elevate broadcast viewing.

Netflix achieves a new platform record, powered by 9B viewing minutes of Squid Game'

January 11 clocks 47 billion daily streaming minutes, supercharged by Prime Video's exclusive NFL Wild Card game

NEW YORK - February 18, 2025 - Nielsen's January 2025 report of The Gauge revealed that TV viewing in January was up 5% compared with an already robust December, driven largely by current events and seasonal factors. Football again played a significant role in January's monthly viewing uptick, with games across the NFL and NCAA drawing big audiences and contributing to share increases for both broadcast ( 0.1pt., 22.5%) and cable ( 0.6pt., 24.4%).

The NFL AFC Championship game on CBS drew this month's largest audience with 57.4 million viewers on Sunday, January 26, followed by the NFC Championship game, which brought in 44.2 million viewers on FOX on the same day. Coverage of the College Football Playoffs on ESPN, in addition to other various bowl games, helped drive a 42% bump in cable sports viewing in January. What's more, the seven CFP games included in the January report (four Quarterfinals, two Semifinals and the National Championship) accounted for the top seven cable telecasts this month, led by the 22.1 million viewers that watched the National Championship Game on January 20.

January also highlighted how consumers' viewing habits have evolved to become more flexible when seeking out preferred content across various distribution platforms. Prime Video exclusively streamed the NFL Wild Card playoff game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens on January 11, which in turn helped drive the second-highest day of streaming on record. Behind the current all-time high of 51.2 billion streaming minutes set on Christmas Day 2024, January 11, 2025 produced over 47 billion streaming minutes in total.

Outside of sports events, traditional television drew audiences by other means as well. Overall broadcast viewing was up 5.1% in January, benefiting from increases to drama series ( 15%) and news ( 18%). The top non-sports broadcast telecasts in January were an eclectic mix led by ABC's New Year's Rockin' Eve with 17.9 million viewers, followed by the post-AFC Championship premier of Watson on CBS with 10.8 million, and the Golden Globe Awards on CBS with 9.7 million. Meanwhile, cable viewing exhibited a 7% monthly increase, and, in addition to the 42% lift in sports viewership, cable also benefited from a 26% increase in news viewing. FOX News Channel dominated non-sports telecasts this month, led by its Inauguration Day coverage.

From a streaming perspective, streaming viewership in January was up 3% versus December and the category accounted for the largest share of television with 42.6%. On a year-over-year basis, streaming usage grew 21% compared with January 2024, and the category has gained 6.6% share of TV viewing.

Notable among streaming platforms:

Netflix followed a robust December with an even stronger January, as viewership rose 7% to lead the streamer to a new platform record of 8.6% of TV. Netflix's big month was due in large part to Squid Game, which generated 9 billion viewing minutes as January's top streaming title.

The Roku Channel also extended its growth streak and notched a fourth consecutive month of platform-best achievement, increasing viewership by 9% in January to reach 2.1% of TV.

As indicated in the December 2024 Gauge report, this marks the first month that Disney's streaming entities (Disney , Hulu and ESPN ) are consolidated into a single share. Disney Streaming began the year with a 4.7% share of TV. Bluey, which received Nielsen's first ARTEY Award for top streaming title in 2024, was January's second most-streamed program with 4.7 billion viewing minutes accumulated on Disney .

The Paramount original series Landman rounded out the top three streaming titles in January with 4.4 billion viewing minutes, and helped the streamer tie its platform best share with 1.4% of TV.

Note: Disney , Hulu and ESPN viewing have been aggregated into a single total represented as Disney Streaming beginning with the January 2025 Gauge report. This change is due to Disney making Hulu and ESPN content available within the Disney app for certain subscribers, which could affect crediting between Disney's streaming properties as it relates to The Gauge.

-- The January 2025 interval dates included 12/30/2024 through 01/26/2025. Nielsen reporting follows the broadcast calendar with measurement weeks that run Monday through Sunday.

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 NielsenNielsen is a global leader in audience measurement, data and analytics. Through our understanding of people and their behaviors across all channels and platforms, we empower our clients with independent and actionable intelligence so they can connect and engage with their global audiences-now and into the future. Learn more at www.nielsen.com and connect with us on social media (X, LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram).

Press ContactLauren Pabst

lauren.pabst@nielsen.com
LINK: https://www.nielsen.com/news-center/2025/the-gauge-traditional-tv-gets...
See more stories from arbitron

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

07/10/2026

Dalet Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Media Operations from Ingest to Distribution

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...

08/09/2026

Comcast Technology Solutions Signs Multi-Year VOD Distribution Agreement with A+E Global Media

Comcast Technology Solutions (CTS) has announced a multi-year agreement with A E...

08/09/2026

Spectra Logic Introduces Media Insight for Faster Discovery, Preview, and Retrieval of Archived Media

Spectra Logic today announced the availability of Media Insight, a new capabilit...

08/09/2026

Rogers and Quebecor Announce 12-Year French-Language NHL Sublicensing Deal

Rogers Communications and Quebecor have announced a 12-year sublicensing agreement for French-language national NHL games beginning with the 2026-27 season. TVA...

08/09/2026

IBC 2026: Skyline Communications and Bridge Technologies to Demonstrate Automated Broadcast Workflows

Skyline Communications and Bridge Technologies will demonstrate two integrations...

08/09/2026

IBC 2026: Boland Communications Makes European Debut of 4K55HDR7SNB

Boland Communications will make the European debut of its 4K55HDR7SNB 55-inch super-narrow-bezel monitor at IBC2026 (Stand 12.C57, RAI Amsterdam, September 11-1...

08/09/2026

Ateme and Comcast Technology Solutions Announce Collaboration for Live Video Delivery

Ateme and Comcast Technology Solutions (CTS) have announced a collaboration comb...

08/09/2026

IBC 2026: Haivision Joins IBC Accelerator Programme on 5G Network Control for Live Production

Haivision has joined the IBC Accelerator Media Innovation Programme as part of t...

08/09/2026

Blackmagic Design Cuts Prices on PYXIS 6K and Cinema Camera 6K

Blackmagic Design has announced price reductions on its PYXIS 6K and Cinema Camera 6K models, effective immediately through Blackmagic Design resellers worldwid...

08/09/2026

IBC 2026: AI-Media to Showcase Multilingual AI Captioning and Translation Platform

AI-Media will demonstrate its LEXI Suite at IBC2026 (Booth 5.C34, September 11-1...

08/09/2026

Bitmovin and Ad Insertion Platform Deploy SGAI Solution for Belgian Broadcaster RTBF

Bitmovin and Ad Insertion Platform (AIP) have announced the first live deploymen...

08/09/2026

IBC 2026: Grass Valley to Demonstrate Story-Centric Newsroom Workflows

Grass Valley will demonstrate story-centric media workflows at IBC2026 (Booth 9.A01, RAI Amsterdam, September 11-14), connecting newsroom production, content ma...

08/09/2026

M2A Media and Ateme Partner to Scale Live Sports Video Delivery

M2A Media and Ateme have announced a partnership integrating Ateme's video processing solutions into M2A Media's MediaToAnywhere platform for live sport...

08/09/2026

IBC 2026: Ikegami to Introduce New UNICAM XE Cameras and Viewfinders

Ikegami will exhibit at IBC2026 (Stand 12.A31, RAI Amsterdam, September 11-14), including a Day 1 introduction of new cameras in the UNICAM XE series. Additiona...

08/09/2026

Caretta Research Shares Top Trends to Watch at IBC 2026

Broadcast industry analysts will be gathering plenty of insights at the 2026 IBC Show this weekend in Amsterdam, but Caretta Research has offered up some though...

08/09/2026

SENSHI and DAZN Announce Global Broadcast Partnership

SENSHI and DAZN have announced a global broadcast partnership that will bring SENSHI's live events free to viewers in more than 200 markets. The partnership...

08/09/2026

ESPN, ESPN2 Begin 4K HDR Rollout in the U.S. with New IP-Based Distribution Pipeline

New architecture built with Evertz will bring 4K HDR to Monday Night Football, N...

08/09/2026

Sauceware Audio release Scorch 2

Built for rap producers, by rap producers Sauceware Audio, the independent plug-in company founded by Grammy-nominated producer Jacob (Travis Scott, 21 Sava...

08/09/2026

Warm Audio unveil the Jude preamps

Classic Sound Techniques design revived Warm Audio's latest release delivers a meticulous recreation of the preamp circuitry employed by the Sound Techn...

08/09/2026

XILS Lab introduce MemoryTone

Latest soft synth inspired by the Memorymoog XILS Lab have just launched a software instrument that draws its inspiration from Moog's iconic Memorymoog,...

08/09/2026

The Airport Chaplain takes off as SBS's biggest launch of 2026

The Airport Chaplain takes off as SBS's biggest launch of 2026 8 September, 2026 Media releases 1.67 million viewers on National Total TV to date Best...

08/09/2026

IBC2026: Haivision Integrates Chyron LIVE into its Workflow

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

08/09/2026

Mo-Sys completes reorganisation strengthens management te...

Mo-Sys, the world-leading developer of virtual production, camera robotics and image tracking technology, has completed a business restructuring, which has incl...

08/09/2026

Aicox and TAG Video Systems power monitoring and multivie...

New York, September 8, 2026 The TSAmediaHUB audiovisual contribution and distribution infrastructure developed by Telef nica's Audiovisual Services area re...

08/09/2026

Asharq migrates extended channel line-up to Pebble playou...

Expanded Riyadh operation brings Asharq and Thmanyah services together on a resilient on-premises Pebble platform. Pebble, the leading automation, content mana...

08/09/2026

Techex Extends its Lead in Software Defined Live Video at...

Techex, a pioneering leader in live video workflows, will showcase its broadest software feature set to date at IBC 2026 (Stand 2.B45), extending its lead in so...

08/09/2026

Grass Valley Advances Story-Centric Media Workflows for U...

Visitors to Grass Valley's booth at IBC2026 will be introduced to new Framelight X capabilities that connect content acquisition, management, editing and pu...

08/09/2026

BCNEXXT Showcases Latest Vipe Innovations at IBC2026 Rais...

BCNEXXT will showcase the latest evolution of Vipe at IBC2026 (Stand 2.B09), introducing a series of innovations designed to deliver higher-quality audience exp...

08/09/2026

Bitmovin and Ad Insertion Platform Power First Active Dep...

Bitmovin, a provider of video streaming solutions, has partnered with Ad Insertion Platform (AIP), a leading innovator in advanced ad insertion technologies, to...

08/09/2026

Brainstorm unveils major enhancements to its Suite 7 envi...

Brainstorm, a leading manufacturer of real-time graphics and augmented and virtual production, is announcing a major package of enhancements to its Suite 7 soft...

08/09/2026

Big Blue Marble Collaborates with TDF as Technology Partn...

Big Blue Marble is supporting TDF, French infrastructure and network operator, broadcasting Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) and radio services, as a techno...

08/09/2026

nxtedition takes agentic AI from newswire to gallery at I...

Agents work inside a single production environment, from incoming wire copy to a live studio show...

08/09/2026

Ceeblue and Layercake Expand Strategic Integration to Lau...

Building on their strategic partnership, Ceeblue and Layercake make the unthinkable possible: scalable sub-second streaming over standard DRM, SSAI, and CDN wor...

08/09/2026

Brainstorm launches Engram a dedicated asset management t...

Brainstorm, a leading manufacturer of real-time graphics, augmented and virtual production, is completing the environment for fast-paced broadcast production wi...

08/09/2026

IBC 2026 - The new Synamedia - solving the business of vi...

A SaaS portfolio built to work together, helping operators grow audiences, monetise smarter and run leaner, on their own terms At IBC 2026 (stand 1.B49) Synam...

08/09/2026

Accedo Selected by PlayOn Sports to Enhance NFHS Network...

Accedo, global provider of video streaming software and services, has been selected by PlayOn Sports, a national leader in high school sports technology, to exp...

08/09/2026

AP brings new connectivity and workflow tech to global ne...

LiveU, the leader in live IP-video solutions, is enabling The Associated Press to take global newsgathering to the next stage with intelligent connectivity and ...

08/09/2026

Mediagenix Personalization Curates Sports Content Around...

Mediagenix, a global leader in smart content solutions to profitably connect the right content to the right audience, today announced the latest evolution of it...

08/09/2026

Appear X5 to enable flyaway contribution for DP World Tou...

Compact, power-efficient X Platform performance brings broadcast-grade reliability and ultra-low latency to space-constrained remote production (REMI) workflows...

08/09/2026

Zixi and Kiloview Partner to Deliver Broadcast-Grade IP V...

Zixi, the leader in live video delivery and workflow orchestration, and Kiloview, a leading provider of professional IP video encoding and decoding solutions, t...

08/09/2026

Quortex and NetActuate announce global agreement

Collaboration gives content owners scalable CDN capacity and broadcasters enhanced flexibility, including for C-band transition planning Quortex today announce...

08/09/2026

Orlando Magic, Gray Media Ink Full-Season Broadcast Deal

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

08/09/2026

Telos Alliance and Pluxbox Announce Dynamic Media Facility Integration Partnership

Telos Alliance and Pluxbox Announce Dynamic Media Facility Integration Partnersh...

08/09/2026

Jnger Audio Showcases Industry-First S-ADM Cloud Workflow at IBC 2026

J nger Audio Showcases Industry-First S-ADM Cloud Workflow at IBC 2026 Search Dolby, MainConcept, Techex and J nger Audio will showcase the industry's ...

08/09/2026

Sky Go gets a major upgrade for Sky Glass and Sky Stream customers

Tuesday 8 September 2026 Sky Go gets a major upgrade for Sky Glass and Sky Stream customers Today, Sky launches a new version of the Sky Go app for Sky Glass ...

08/09/2026

Trailer released for The Wargame, launching on Sky from 21 September

Documentary thriller simulating a Russian attack on UK soil will culminate in a live final episode reuniting the playersTuesday 8 September 2026 Trailer releas...

08/09/2026

Riedel Introduces New OnAir Headset Platform

Wuppertal September 8, 2026 Riedel Introduces New OnAir Headset PlatformRiedel Communications today announced the launch of its new OnAir headset platform, a...