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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
Amazon Now to reach 100 cities with 1,000 plus centres in Rs 2,800 crore push
Rs 2,800 crore push fuels rapid delivery expansion as quick commerce heats up
NEW DELHI: Amazon India is significantly expanding its ultra-fast delivery service Amazon Now, with plans to scale operations to 100 cities across India, backed by a network of over 1,000 micro-fulfilment centres.
The move is part of a broader Rs 2,800 crore investment aimed at strengthening the company’s operations network while also enhancing safety, health and financial wellbeing programmes for thousands of associates, including fulfilment centre staff and delivery partners.
Amazon Now offers a curated selection of thousands of daily essentials, ranging from groceries such as fresh fruits, vegetables and frozen food to personal care, fashion and beauty products, small appliances, baby products, pet supplies and healthcare supplements. These are delivered within minutes, positioning the service at the centre of India’s rapidly evolving quick commerce landscape.
The expansion will take Amazon Now beyond its existing footprint in Mumbai, Delhi-NCR and Bengaluru to a wide mix of metro and non-metro cities, including Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Jaipur, Lucknow, Kanpur, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Meerut, Mysore, Panipat, Kochi, Amritsar, Mangalore and Vizag.
A key pillar of the initiative is its growing supply ecosystem. The company said the expansion will enable more than 16,000 farmers to directly connect with customers through sellers on the platform, using Amazon’s technology and logistics backbone to deliver fresh produce efficiently.
Explaining the momentum, Amazon India VP everyday essentials Harsh Goyal said, “Customers continue to enjoy Amazon Now, appreciating our delivery speed, value and selection, especially the quality of fresh produce sourced directly from farmers. Encouraged by this success, we have further accelerated our expansion plans and will scale Amazon Now to 100 cities, fuelled by a network of more than 1,000 micro-fulfilment centres.”
He added that the platform is designed to offer unmatched convenience, with thousands of essentials delivered in minutes, over a million items available for same-day delivery, and millions more the next day through Amazon’s wider marketplace.
At the core of Amazon Now is a network of compact, tech-enabled micro-fulfilment centres strategically located close to customer neighbourhoods. These facilities use advanced inventory systems to optimise product placement based on hyperlocal demand, enabling faster and more efficient deliveries.
With scale, speed and supply chain integration coming together, Amazon’s latest push underscores its ambition to become a dominant player in India’s quick commerce space while reshaping how everyday essentials reach consumers.
