Demos: YouTube Leads Streaming, NBC Dominates Cable, BET Remains Top of Cable
Broadcast: NBC led broadcast networks in January 2026 with 139.3 million viewers, followed by ABC (113.8 million) and FOX (109.1 million). CBS fell to 80.9 million viewers while The CW remained the lowest at 13.0 million, consistent with December. Three networks saw increases while two declined. FOX posted the largest increase, up 17.8 million, followed by NBC (+15.9 million) and ABC (+5.3 million). CBS experienced the biggest overall shift with a 30.3 million decline. The CW saw the smallest change, with just a 0.3 million difference from December.
Following December's trends, NFL coverage drove viewership spikes across ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC. Spikes occurred two to four times monthly, aligning with Week 18, Wild Card games, Divisional Rounds and Conference Championships games. CBS had three spikes totaling 23.2 million viewers; ABC had two (32.0 million); FOX had four (62.5 million); and NBC had three (70.5 million). NFL programming accounted for roughly half of January’s total viewership for FOX and NBC, and about one-fourth for ABC and CBS. The CW showed no spikes, suggesting its smaller audience remains steady and consistent.
Cable: BET retained the top spot from December into January with 149,000 PrimeTime viewers. Magnolia Network (121,000 viewers) and OWN (106,000) followed, with The Weather Channel at 61,000. BET Her drew 27,000 viewers in January and Justice Central 18,000. CleoTV (8,000) and Comedy.TV (7,000) ranked lowest. January tracked only a portion of viewership, limiting direct comparison to December’s viewership. Based on available preliminary analysis, Magnolia Networks retained the highest relative viewership. OWN, Justice Central and CleoTV maintained over half of their December reports. BET, BET Her and The Weather Channel were slightly under half, while Comedy.TV had about one-third of its December’s numbers.
Spanish Language: ESPN Deportes took the top spot in January with 47,000 viewers, up from its third place spot in December. Universo (39,000) and Galavisión (27,000) followed behind, with Universo maintaining its second spot and Galavisión moving up from fourth to third. TUDN (13,000), CNN Español (12,000) and Fox Deportes (11,000) were all close together. Other networks included Discovery Familia (7,000), Nat Geo Mundo (5,000), GalaNovelas (3,000) and BeIN Sports Español (3,000). Like cable, January data reflects only partial tracking. Most networks retained one-fourth to one-half of the December totals. ESPN Deportes saw little change, while TUDN experienced the most significant drop dropping from 168,000 viewers in December to 13,000 in January.
Streaming Viewership by Percentage
Streaming: Streaming accounted for 47.0% of TV viewership in January. YouTube continued to lead within the category at 26.6% of the streaming viewership. Netflix (18.7%), Disney+ (10.4%) and Prime Video (8.7%) followed. Subsequent platforms in percentage were Roku (6.4%), Paramount+ (4.9%), Tubi (4.5%), Peacock (3.8%) and Warner Bros. Discovery (3.0%), with the remainder share is split among other platforms. Consistent with November and December, platforms rankings remained unchanged, with monthly fluctuations of less than one percentage point.
