Demos: NFL Controls Broadcast Spikes, BET Dominates Cable, TUDN Leads Spanish Networks
Broadcast: NBC led December viewership with 123.4 million viewers. CBS (111.2 million), ABC (108.4 million) and FOX (90.2 million) followed closely. The CW remained the lowest, with 13.3 million viewers, consistent with November’s trend. All five networks saw declines from November’s viewership to December’s: ABC fell the most with a drop of roughly 34 million, FOX and NBC each lost about 11 million and The CW and CBS declined approximately 2 million. This suggests that during the holiday season, when broadcast viewership generally dips, ABC experienced the largest loss of audience interest, while The CW and CBS maintained relatively stable.
Notably, all networks except The CW experienced significant weekly (or bi-weekly, in FOX’s case) spikes that skewed total and average viewership. ABC’s five spikes equated 42.3 million viewers, reducing its total to 66.1 million and its average daily viewership to 2.5 million. CBS’s two spikes contributed 21.9 million, leaving 89.3 million total viewers and a 3.1 million daily average. FOX’s spikes accounted for 38.65 million, reducing total viewership to 51.6 million and a daily average of 1.8 million. NBC’s four spikes added 64.5 million, bringing the adjusted total to 58.9 million with a 2.0 million daily average. Most of these spikes were likely tied to NFL programming, including ABC’s Monday Night Football and FOX’s Super Saturday NFL specials, as well as ABC’s large national news days and the New Year’s specials.
Cable: BET dominated in December, totaling 387,000 viewers during PrimeTime viewing hours. OWN followed with 178,000 viewers, Magnolia Network at 161,000 and The Weather Channel at 136,000. Other networks reported lower viewership: BET Her (60,000), Justice Central (27,000), Comedy.TV (21,000) and CleoTV (14,000). Because December’s data only includes the first two weeks, it’s difficult to directly compare to November. However, preliminary analysis suggests each network maintained roughly half of its November viewership during these two weeks, indicating steady audience retention.
Spanish Language: TUDN led Spanish-language PrimeTime viewership in December with 168,000 viewers – more than double the second-place network, Universo (79,000). Fox Deportes followed with 64,000, while ESPN Deportes and Galavisión were nearly tied at 48,000 and 47,000, respectively. Other networks included Discovery Español (29,000), Nat Geo Mundo (20,000), Discovery Familia (17,000), CNN Español (16,000) and GalaNovelas (5,000).
As with cable, data for Spanish networks covers only the first two weeks of December. Most networks retained about half of their November viewership in this period, with ESPN Deportes and Nat Geo Mundo slightly exceeding that benchmark. BeIN Sports was excluded due to incomplete PrimeTime data.
Streaming Viewership by Percentage
Streaming: Streaming accounted for 47.5% of TV viewership in December. YouTube with 26.74% of streaming viewership, followed by Netflix Netflix follows (18.95%), Disney+ (9.89%) and Prime Video (9.01%). Other platforms included Roku (6.32%), Paramount+ (5.26%), Tubi (4.21%), Peacock (3.58%) and Warner Bros. Discovery (2.95%). The remaining percentage was shared by other platforms. Compared to November 2025, rankings remained unchanged, with minor percentage fluctuations of one to two percent of December’s data.
