Brands
Holiday movies and football lift TV viewing in December: Nielsen
MUMBAI: December proved one thing beyond doubt: nothing pulls audiences together quite like festive favourites and a bit of football. Nielsen’s December 2025 Media Distributor Gauge shows a buoyant holiday season for Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, Hallmark, Netflix and Amazon, all riding a seasonal cocktail of sport, nostalgia and big-ticket originals.
Disney emerged as the month’s biggest mover, notching the highest multiplatform growth and holding firm at number two overall. Viewing rose 4 per cent, taking its total share to 10.7 per cent. ESPN did much of the heavy lifting, clocking a 30 per cent jump thanks to Monday Night Football, an expanded College Football Playoffs schedule and College Gameday. On the cosier end of the spectrum, Freeform doubled its November viewing as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman worked their annual magic.
Warner Bros. Discovery also had a December to remember. TBS and TNT posted gains of 23 per cent and 24 per cent respectively, fuelled by college football and a healthy appetite for holiday films. A Christmas Story topped the charts on TBS, while HBO Max enjoyed a 10 per cent lift, helped by the original series It: Welcome To Derry and the evergreen appeal of The Big Bang Theory and Friends.
If Christmas movies were a competitive sport, Hallmark would have taken gold. The Hallmark Channel swept the top five cable movie telecasts in December, led by She’s Making A List, Single On The 25th and A Suite Holiday Romance, cementing its place as the season’s comfort viewing champion.
Streaming hit a historic high on Christmas Day itself. According to Nielsen’s December Gauge, audiences logged a record 55.1 billion viewing minutes, making it the most-streamed day ever. NFL games on Netflix and Prime Video were the main draw, delivering platform-best monthly shares for both services.
Netflix climbed to third place overall, boosted by its NFL Christmas Day doubleheader and the runaway success of Stranger Things, now the most-streamed original series ever. The result was a 10 per cent monthly viewing increase and a record total share of 9.0 per cent. Amazon followed closely, up 12 per cent to a 4.3 per cent share, driven by Thursday Night Football, a record-breaking Christmas Day NFL game and the return of Fallout.
Two platforms marked December milestones. Amazon and The Roku Channel both posted their highest-ever monthly shares, with Roku reaching 3.0 per cent. The Roku Channel’s longer-term growth is even more striking, up 45 per cent year on year and nearly triple its share compared with December 2023.
Not everyone shared the festive bounce. Broadcast networks dipped from November levels, reflecting a quieter sports calendar with no Thanksgiving NFL games, fewer college football fixtures and no World Series. Cable news channels also saw declines over the month.
The December 2025 measurement period ran from December 1 to December 28, following Nielsen’s broadcast calendar, which tracks viewing from Monday to Sunday.
In short, December belonged to touchdowns, tinsel and tried-and-tested favourites, a reminder that when the holidays roll around, viewers still love a big game and a familiar story.
Brands
Flipkart plays on Ugadi vs Yugadi debate in festive campaign
Light-hearted film turns pronunciation clash into deals and delight
MUMBAI: Flipkart is turning a tongue-twister into a talking point with its latest campaign around Ugadi, playfully diving into the age-old debate of Ugadi versus Yugadi.
Conceptualised by 22feet, the campaign leans into a simple cultural truth. While pronunciation may differ across Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka, the festive spirit and the urge to shop remain universal.
The campaign film captures this with a humorous back-and-forth between Telugu and Kannada speakers arguing over the ‘right’ way to say the festival’s name, only to land on a cheerful twist where both sides are rewarded. It is less about settling the debate and more about celebrating it.
At the centre of the activation is an interactive microsite, where users can share festive wishes and unlock exclusive deals on the Flipkart app. The idea turns a linguistic quirk into a participative experience, nudging users to engage while they browse.
The campaign is being amplified across digital platforms, including Meta, along with integrations on Flipkart’s own ecosystem, encouraging users to join the conversation and cash in on festive offers.
22feet chief creative excellence officer Vishnu Srivatsav said, “Small cultural nuances often create the most interesting ideas. The pronunciation debate gave us a playful starting point, and from there we built a take that is both celebratory and distinctive.”
In blending humour with heritage, Flipkart’s campaign shows that sometimes, it is not about who is right, but how everyone can win, especially when there are deals on the table.
