Prime Video’s wild card playoff game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens has smashed records for the streamer with an average audience of 22.07 million viewers – its largest ever.

Saturday’s viewership figure, which is based on data from Nielsen’s panel-only measurement, marks NFL on Prime’s best-ever average audience, topping the previous 17.3 million viewers during Dec. 5’s Greenbay Packers and Detroit Lions match-up by nearly five million viewers, or a 28% increase. It’s also a 67% increase from the 2024 Thursday Night Football season average of 13.2 million and a 7% increase from the the 2023 Saturday Night wild card matchup between the Chargers and Jaguars, which drew 20.61 million viewers.

However, it marked a 3% decrease from last year’s Saturday night wild card matchup between the Dolphins and Chiefs, which had 22.86 million average viewers.

In addition, the Steelers-Ravens game attracted the most concurrent viewers ever to the service – with an all-time high of 24.7 million during the 9:00-9:15 p.m. ET portion of the second quarter. 

The Steelers-Ravens averaged 3.98 million viewers ages 18 to 34 – a new all-time high for the NFL on Prime and 14% increase from the 3.48 million during the Vikings Eagles game on Sept. 14, 2023 – and 9.54 million ages 18 to 49 – a new all-time high and 24% higher than the 7.69 million who watched the Cowboys-Giants game on Sept. 26.

Meanwhile, Prime Video’s NFL wild card pregame show averaged 2.03 million viewers on Saturday night while facing overlap from an earlier wild card game, marking an increase of 33% over the 2024 season average of TNF’s pregame show “TNF Tonight” of 1.53 million.

The wild card “Nightcap” postgame show averaged 3.54 million on Saturday night, marking an 74% increase of +74% over the 2024 season average of 2.04 million.

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Harlan Coben’s series “Missing You” held onto the top spot on Netflix’s most-watched shows list, outpacing the debut of “American Primeval.”

After scoring the No. 1 spot on Netflix’s top 10 most-watched shows last week as the limited series debuted to 21.7 million views, “Missing You” maintained its top spot on the list despite dropping to 15.2 million views during the week of Jan. 6. Viewership for “Missing You” outpaced the launch of Western series “American Primeval,” which took the No. 2 spot on the list with 10.4 million views.

Still, “American Primeval” racked up a bigger audience during the week than docuseries “Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action,” which took third place on the English TV list with 7.7 million views, as well the debut of WWE’s “Monday Night Raw,” which took the No. 4 place with 5.9 views for the week after its Jan. 6 debut.

“Departure,” which was added to Netflix’s library at the start of 2025, continued to gain traction, with its first season becoming the week’s No. 5 most-watched show with 3.6 million views while Season 2 came in ninth place with 2.4 million views. “Virgin River” was the week’s sixth most-watched English show as it scored 3.1 million views, surpassing viewership for “Gabriel Iglesias: Legend of Fluffy,” which took seventh place with 2.9 million views, and “Black Doves” Season 1, which came in eighth place with 2.8 million views.

“Squid Game” Season 2 kept its winning streak going as Netflix’s most-watched title of the week for the third week in a row, this time clocking in at 26.3 million views. Since its Dec. 26 premiere, “Squid Game” Season 2 has tallied up 152.5 million views, ranking as the No. 2 most-watched non-English show ever — behind Season 1 — as well as the third most-watched season on Netflix ever behind “Squid Game” Season 1 and “Wednesday.”

“Squid Game” Season 1 also continued to see a viewing boost amidst the Season 2 release, with Season 1 taking the No. 3 spot on the week’s top non-English TV list with 8.7 million views.

On the film front, “The Secret Life of Pets 2” was the most-watched English movie of the week with 15 million views (“The Secret Life of Pets” came in fourth place with 6.2 million views). Holiday-themed thriller “Carry On” took second place with 7.2 million views while “Ma” took third place with 7 million views this week.

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“Squid Game” Season 2 has become the No. 2 most popular non-English series in Netflix history.

The second installment of the Lee Jung-jae-led series brought in 126.2 million views in just 11 days on Netflix, ranking the No. 2 most-watched non-English series, behind just “Squid Game” Season 1. Amassing this many views in this time frame marks a new record for the streaming giant.

In the second week since its release, “Squid Game” Season 2 jumped to from No. 7 to No. 2 on the weekly most-watched non-English shows list, capturing 58.2 million views during the week of Dec. 30. Season 2’s success has also caused Netflix subscribers to return to its first installment. “Squid Game” Season 1 scored 13.6 million views during the week of Dec. 30, putting it as No. 2 on Netflix’s non-English TV charts.

It’s not too surprising that “Squid Game” Season 2 would rank No. 2 on Netflix’s list of the most watched non-English language series of all time. After all, Netflix is an American company. Non-English content is important to the streamer, but by and large the company’s most-watched shows and movies are in English.

What is surprising is how the second season of “Squid Game” compares to Netflix’s most-watched English language content. After less than two weeks, Gi-hun’s return to the game currently ranks as the fourth most-watched Netflix series of all time when combining both the English and non-English categories. The current list of most watched Netflix shows is “Squid Game” Season 1 (265.2 million views) followed by “Wednesday” (252.1 million), “Stranger Things” Season 4 (140.7 million), “Squid Game” Season 2 and finally “Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” (115.6 million).

“Squid Game” Season 2 has also outperformed all of Netflix’s non-English language movies. However, it has yet to compete against Netflix’s list of the most-watched English language movies. The 10th place movie on that list is “The Mother,” which secured 136.4 million views in its first 91 days. Since “Squid Game” Season 2 still has 80 more days of eligibility for being considered for Netflix’s Most Popular list, it seems very likely the South Korean thriller will continue to usurp its streaming peers.

During the week of Dec. 30, the limited series “La Palma” was the third most watched non-English language title on Netflix, placing behind the first two seasons of “Squid Game.” That was followed by the South Korean thriller “When the Phone Rings” in fourth place and Season 2 of the Brazilian reality competition “Stranded With My Mother-in-Law” in fifth place.

The other big title toward the end of December was the Harlan Corben show “Missing You.” That secured 21.7 million views, making it both the most-watched English-language series as well as the second most-watched title of the week. It was then followed by the sixth season of “Virgin River,” the first season of “Black Doves,” the first season of “The Departure” and the limited series “The Madness.” Both “Black Doves” and “The Madness” were remarkable as their appearances marked their fifth and sixth weeks of being on the list, respectively.

On the movie front, the Taron Egerton airport thriller “Carry-On” scored the No. 1 spot on the English-language movies list, seeing 17.4 million views. That was followed by “The Six Triple Eight” in second place, “The Secret Life of Pets 2” in third, “Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch” in fourth and “Avicii — I’m Tim” in fifth.

Last but never least for the week was Netflix’s list of non-English movies. The Norwegian war movie “Number 24” led the week with 8.8 million views. That was followed by the Bollywood horror-comedy “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3” in second place. The Italian rom-com “The Love Scam,” the Italian drama “The Children’s Train” and the Indonesian horror-comedy “Kang Mak from Pee Mak” then rounded out the list.

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Under the renewal agreement, VideoAmp will continue to provide Paramount with demographic and advanced audience measurement data for 40 million households.

“We’re proactive in measurement and currency as an investment in our future,” Paramount Advertising president John Halley said in a statement. “Through our long-standing partnership with VideoAmp, we’re able to collectively drive innovation and accelerate progress by delivering advertisers and agencies the tools to make smarter, data-driven decisions.”

The announcement comes as Paramount’s standoff with Nielsen enters its fourth month — the Paramount-Nielsen contract expired without a new deal on Oct. 1.

VideoAMP covers 98% of the TV publisher ecosystem, with its measurement and currency solutions adopted by over 50 agency groups and more than 1,000 advertisers. 

In addition to Paramount, the company’s partners include A+E Networks, Allen Media Group, IPG Mediabrands, NBCUniversal and Omnicom Media Group, RPA, TelevisaUnivision and Warner Bros. Discovery.

“Paramount has been an incredibly valued partner over the past three years and was one of the first media companies to transact on VideoAmp at scale,” VideoAmp executive vice president of revenue Bryan Goski added. “We are excited to continue to grow our partnership, leading the industry in
measurement and advanced currency solutions driven by big data and tech which ultimately deliver better and more measurable results.”

Paramount has argued that Nielsen’s costs as a percentage of the company’s ad revenue have “quintupled” over significant parts of its business, and proposed fees exceed the total ad revenue of the network being measured in some instances. In the interim, the company has been using VideoAmp as its data partner and has said it’s prepared to make a permanent switch.

Meanwhile, Nielsen says that Paramount is demanding a “nearly 50% reduction” in the price of its service, which “not only undervalues our substantial investments, but makes it unsustainable to provide the support and quality that all Nielsen clients rely upon.”

“We can not reset the value of our services to a fraction of their worth due to the circumstances and demands of one client,” CEO Karthik Rao said in a memo in November. “We are an industry solution and price integrity matters for the role we play in the industry.” 

VideoAmp recently revealed it has $3 billion in guaranteed currency as of the close of 2024, marking an 880% year over year increase. Netflix recently struck a deal with VideoAmp to deliver cross-screen and live viewership measurement starting with the launch of WWE.

Beyond its continued partnership with Paramount, VideoAmp is also offering agencies and advertisers a “no-cost trial” to its Content Analysis Ratings Dashboard (CARD) through March 31 as part of an effort to offset costs. The move follows multiple rounds of layoffs and the departure of former VideoAmp CEO Ross McCrary last year.

It also comes after Nielsen pulled Paramount data from its Media Information Tape, a service provided to advertising agencies that acts as a one-stop shop to view ratings and check them against their ad buys to determine if they hit their targets. At the time, Nielsen told TheWrap that all of its clients would continue to have a “full view of the marketplace” as it continues to measure Paramount’s networks and streaming services.

“We are committed to supporting our clients through this measurement evolution, ensuring they have the resources necessary to transact,” VideoAmp Chief Commercial and Growth Officer Peter Bradbury said in a memo last month. “We remain dedicated to helping the industry navigate this shift to a multi-currency world as 2025 commences, and we approach the forthcoming upfront.”

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The 2025 Golden Globes’ saw a 9% increase in its streaming audience when compared to 2024.

The Globes, which kicked off this year’s awards season, brought in 10.1 million viewers, according to overnight viewing figures from VideoAmp. CBS boasts the Globes saw a 9% boost in its live-streaming audience on Paramount+ and the CBS App when compared to last year.

The 82nd annual Golden Globes competed for viewership against Sunday night’s NFL game between the Minnesota Vikings and the Detroit Lions, which brought in an average of 28.5 million viewers across NBC, Peacock, NBC sports and NFL digital platforms.

On social media, the 2025 Golden Globes drove 40 million social impressions on Sunday, outpacing social media performance for broadcast specials across all of TV in the last 12 months, and outperformed 2024 numbers for the Oscars and the Grammys. The Globes saw a 124% increase in social impressions and a 52% jump in potential impressions as the ceremony surpassed 45.1 billion potential impressions.

The 2025 Globes continued to build on the ratings growth seen by the ceremony last year, when the Globes brought in its biggest audience since 2020 with 9.4 million viewers. The 2024 ceremony saw a nearly 50% jump from 2023, whose ceremony brought in just 6.3 million total viewers on NBC. Viewership for the 2023 show saw a 8.7 decrease from 2021, when the Globes drew in 6.9 million viewers on NBC. The 2022 Golden Globes were not televised following controversy surrounding the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the embattled organization behind the Golden Globes.

Hosted by Nikki Glaser, the 82nd Golden Globe Awards marked a big night for both “Emilia Pérez” and “The Brutalist.” “Emilia Pérez,” which starred Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón and Selena Gomez, took home four wins out of its overall 10 nominations, making it the movie that won the most awards throughout the evening. It was then followed by Adrien Brody’s A24 film “The Brutalist,” which won three awards out of its seven nominations.

On the television side, FX’s expansive drama “Shōgun” swept the evening, winning all four of its nominations. It was then followed by Netflix’s “Baby Reindeer” and Max’s “Hacks,” both of which took home two wins each, making the night reminiscent of September’s Emmys.

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CNN’s New Year’s Eve special with Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen rang in the New Year with its biggest midnight audience since 2021.

“New Year’s Eve Live with Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen,” which aired live from New York City’s Times Square, brought in 3.7 million total viewers and 1.36 million viewers in the key cable demo among adults 25-54 from 12:00 a.m. to 12:30 a.m., according to Nielsen live-plus-same-day figures.

During that half hour period — when the ball dropped in Times Square — CNN’s New Year’s Eve special was the No. 1 most-watched program across cable in both demos, and saw upticks in both demos, leading the boozy festivities to see their best performance since 2021. From 11 p.m. to 12:30 a.m., the special averaged 2.98 million total viewers and 1.08 million viewers in the demo.

Though the special saw an uptick at midnight, the overall event, which aired from 8:00 p.m. to 12:30 a.m., averaged 1.88 million viewers — down 19.3% from last year’s viewership of 2.33 million — and brought in 649,000 viewers in the demo — down 19.01% from last year’s demo viewership of 802,000.

Overall, “New Year’s Eve Live with Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen” ranked as the No. 2 program across cable in both demos, behind only college football on ESPN, becoming cable’s most-watched New Years program.

As the program streamed live on Max, the special also boosted New Year’s Eve 2025 to become Max’s No. 4 most-watched day on record, ranking behind only 2024’s Election Day, as well as the two presidential debates leading up to the election. This year’s special grew 10% over last year’s New Year’s Eve programming on CNN.

When combining viewing across Max and TV, “New Year’s Eve Live with Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen” reached 15.8 million total viewers, up 40% from last year.

Much of the New Year’s TV viewing crowd tuned in to “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve With Ryan Seacrest,” which landing the top spot among New Year’s Eve primetime and late-night programming with 18 million total viewers. At midnight, the annual ABC special peaked at 21.5 million total viewers.

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“Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve With Ryan Seacrest” rang in 2025 with an impressive audience, landing the top spot among New Year’s Eve primetime and late-night programming.

The annual ABC special brought in 18 million total viewers and peaked at 21.5 million total viewers at midnight, according to fast national live-plus-same-day viewing figures from Nielsen. The special did not surpass last year’s record viewership of the show, which got to 22.2 million at midnight to ring in 2024, though numbers are likely to increase when full night viewership is counted.

Carrie Underwood headlined the long-running special, and performed a medley of her songs from Times Square just before midnight. Additional performers for the night included Alanis Morissette, Blake Shelton, Reneé Rapp, Dasha, Fat Joe, Slick Rick & Doug E. Fresh, Ernest, HARDY, Kesha, Laufey, Natasha Bedingfield and T-Pain, among others.

The late-night hours, airing from 11:30-12:29 a.m. ET, dominated viewership with 17.9 million total viewers and a 4.73 rating in the 19-49 demo, reaching a peak during the midnight quarter hour with 21.5 million total viewers and a 5.70 demo rating.

The primetime “Rockin’ Eve” show, airing 8-10 p.m., was the no. 1 entertainment program in the timeslot in both total viewers (6.2 million) and with adults 18-49 (1.46). Primetime 1 beat its CBS competitor, “New Year’s Eve Live: Nashville’s Big Bash” by double digits, with the latter scoring 4.9 million viewers and a .68 in the demo. Part 2 of the special averaged 9.5 million total viewers and a 2.39 rating.

iHeart Media’s live audio broadcast across the U.S. reached 1.8 million listeners across 150 station on Tuesday night — a 56% increase from last year’s event.

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The Paris Olympics boosted Peacock to reach its biggest share of TV viewing across linear and streaming yet, with the streamer’s monthly audience growing by 39% in August. Meanwhile, Netflix hosted one of its first major live sporting events with the Mike Tyson-Jake Paul fight that co-CEO Ted Sarandos compared to a “Super Bowl-like audience.”

Amid a steady decline in linear viewership across the board, one major event prompted a spike in cable news viewership: Donald Trump’s re-election. Many MSNBC and CNN viewers turned off the TV following the November election, but Fox News’ ratings benefitted from the results, with the network seeing an 11% uptick in primetime viewership after the election.

With an influx of new series debuting across linear and streaming, many thrived, including Peacock’s “The Traitors” and “Love Island USA,” Taylor Sheridan’s “Yellowstone,” as well as several broadcast favorites, like CBS’ “Matlock” and ABC’s “High Potential” and “Dancing With the Stars,” which saw impressive growth on streaming platforms. And of course, “Bluey” remained No. 1, racking up 50.5 billion minutes watched on Disney+.

For the full breakdown of the 2024 ratings winners, see below.

Disney

This year, Disney was bolstered by the strength of its series on streaming, including the tried and true kids series “Bluey,” which closed out 2024 as the No. 1 most-watched streaming show, tallying 842 million hours (50.5 billion minutes) watched for viewers in the U.S. on Disney+, according to Nielsen data through November.

While the entertainment giant’s acclaimed series did not draw quite as big of an audience, the numbers were still fairly impressive. “Shōgun” hit a series-high of 608 million viewing minutes in the wake of its finale during the week of April 22, becoming the week’s No. 4 most-watched streaming original. Disney+’s “Agatha All Along” debuted its first two episodes in September to 426 million viewing minutes, and the show’s final two episodes boosted the show to 744 million minutes, reaching the No. 10 slot on the overall most-streamed chart during the week of Oct. 28.

The Walt Disney Company led Nielsen’s Media Distributor Gauge for every month in 2024 except for July when viewing on YouTube outpaced Disney, and August when the Olympics boosted NBCUniversal to the top of the list. For viewing in November, Disney led the charge for the third consecutive month with 11% of TV viewing, with its streaming arms accounting for 43% of its total share.

Fox News

Fox News has long dominated the cable news ratings leaderboard, and the re-election of Donald Trump this November only helped boost the network’s numbers. Fox News has seen double-digit percentage increases across its primetime and total day viewership since the election, with primetime numbers growing 11% to reach a post-election average viewership of 2.63 million, according to Nielsen figures through Dec. 15, while total day viewership saw a 20% jump to average 1.7 million viewers. With MSNBC and CNN shedding their audiences since the election, Fox News has captured a 73% share of viewers watching cable news.

For the full year of 2024, Fox News averaged 2.41 million viewers in primetime — up 31% when compared to 2023 — and reached total daily viewers of 1.46 million viewers — up 21% from 2023. For 2024, the network captured a 55% share the cable news audience in primetime and 53% in total day, its highest since 2015.

Peacock

The Paris 2024 Olympics boosted Peacock to reach a new platform best share of TV usage as it captured 2.1% of viewing across linear and streaming in August, according to Nielsen’s Gauge report. While 2.1% of all TV viewing doesn’t appear to be much, Peacock saw the largest growth of all the streamers as its audience increased by 33% in July, thanks to both the 2024 Games, which kicked off on July 26, as well as “Love Island USA,” which became an unexpected hit with its sixth season. As the Paris Olympics continued through Aug. 11, Peacock’s monthly audience grew by 39% that month and nearly doubled its viewers ages 35-49. The streamer became the third streaming platform in 2024 year to record a 0.5 point share increase or more on a monthly basis as July’s 1.5% share grew to 2.1% in August. The streamer fell back to its usual levels later in the year, finishing November with a 1.5% share.

Earlier in the year, Peacock’s “The Traitors” became a ratings hit when Season 2 debuted in January and quickly captivated viewers. “The Traitors” became the most-watched unscripted series in the U.S. across all streaming platforms as it logged 384 million minutes viewed during the week of Jan. 15 across all episodes of Season 1 and the four available episodes of Season 2. The show will return for Season 3 on Jan. 9.

“Yellowstone” and the Taylor Sheridan Universe

While “Yellowstone” bid adieu to Kevin Costner, the show’s ratings did not falter in the slightest when the Paramount Network series returned for the second half of its fifth season in November. The Season 5B premiere scored the show’s biggest premiere viewership as it scored 16.4 million viewers across Paramount Network, CBS and its other cable encore viewings. The Season 5 finale scored a series ratings-high for “Yellowstone” with 11.4 million viewers, and wrapped up the second half of the season with a 4% audience increase over the first half of the season. That strong performance is likely to repeat with the various spinoff series set to return to Paramount+, starting with the second season of “1923” in February.

“Yellowstone” wasn’t the only series under Taylor Sheridan’s watch that saw impressive ratings this year. Billy Bob Thornton-led “Landman” became the most-watched Paramount+ original series of all time as it reached 14.9 million households globally in its first four weeks. And the second season of “Lioness” saw a 10% increase in viewership compared to its first season, reaching 8.3 million domestic households.

Women’s Sports

Women’s sports have been gaining traction for years, but this year’s ratings reached incredible new highs. Caitlin Clark’s journey taking the Iowa Hawkeyes through March Madness drew in a record-breaking number of eyeballs, culminating with the matchup between Iowa and South Carolina bringing in 18.9 million viewers across ABC and ESPN. The game saw 89% and 285% increases over the national championship game for 2023 and 2022, respectively, and ranked as the second most-watched non-Olympic women’s sporting event ever on U.S. television, behind only the 2015 Women’s World Cup final.

The women’s NCAA basketball tournament lead into the 2024 Olympic games, which saw Simone Biles and U.S. women’s gymnastics team boost ratings all the way from the opening trials — which became the most-watched Olympic trials telecast since July 2016 — through the finals — which boosted the day’s events to reach 34.7 million viewers across NBC, Peacock other NBCUniversal platforms. That nearly doubled the audience of the first Tuesday of competition during the Tokyo 2021 Olympics.

Netflix’s Mike Tyson-Jake Paul Fight

As Netflix expands its live sports programming in the lead-up to its NFL Christmas Day game and the 2025 debut of WWE Monday Night RAW, the streamer scored an unprecedented audience for its fight against boxing legend Mike Tyson and newcomer Jake Paul. Despite some notable streaming interruptions, the event drew 108 million viewers from the event’s opening to closing bell, peaking at 65 million live concurrent streams, with 38 million concurrent streams in the U.S. alone.

The event, which took place on Friday, Nov. 15, became the most-streamed global sporting event ever, with Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos touting the “enormous live audience” in early December, saying “You’d have to go back to the ’80s to get a live audience that big. It’s a Super Bowl-like audience that we were able to draw for this fight.”

While it’s not quite an apples-to-apples comparison to last year’s Super Bowl, which scored 123.7 million viewers, the fight was Netflix’s most-watched title of the week with a whopping 46.6 million views.

Linear Content on Streaming

Amid the sustained decline in linear viewership — with streaming growing to a record share of 41.6% for November’s TV viewing, per Nielsen’s Gauge report — broadcast shows thrived in delayed viewing on their parent company’s streaming platforms.

After 35 days of multi-platform viewing on CBS, Paramount + and other CBS digital platforms, “Tracker” is averaging 18.2 million viewers per episode, while “Matlock” is averaging 16.9 million per episode. Likewise, ABC’s “High Potential,” “Abbott Elementary” and “9-1-1” were among the top 5 most streamed broadcast series this fall, with “High Potential” taking the No. 1 spot with 4.30 million average viewers. Additionally, viewership for the “Dancing With the Stars” Season 33 finale grew 25% after a week of viewing across ABC, Disney+, Hulu and digital platforms to reach the show’s biggest multi-platform audience since 2021.

Linear content continued to perform well on streaming. Staples “Family Guy,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Bob’s Burgers” consistently made it into Nielsen’s most-watched streaming lists, while series like “Gilmore Girls,” “Prison Break,” “Lost” and “Criminal Minds” also popped into the top 10 throughout the year.

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Netflix’s Christmas NFL games — and Beyoncé’s halftime show — brought in 65 million total viewers in the United States, according to Nielsen data. Both games broke streaming records for the NFL in the U.S., as well as viewership records for the coveted 18-34 demographic.

The Ravens vs. Texans game saw 24.3 million viewers based on average minute audience data. As for the Chiefs vs. Steelers game, that saw 24.1 million viewers in average minute audience viewing. Viewership in the United States peaked during the Ravens-Texans game thanks to the Beyoncé Bowl, which saw over 27 million viewers, per Nielsen. That game was also watched by 5.1 million viewers in the U.S. between the ages of 18 to 34, the highest viewership record the NFL has seen for that demographic since 2001.

That makes the Ravens-Texans game the most-streamed NFL game in U.S. history, according to Nielsen, followed by the Chiefs-Steelers game. The record was previously held by September’s Cowboys-Giants game, which averaged 16.22 million viewers on Prime Video. These metrics were based on fast national live plus same day data from Nielsen and included both out-of-home viewing and CBS local market viewing on mobile and web data. NFL+ mobile viewing was also included in these metrics.

Global ratings for the games, as well as additional insights, will be released on Dec. 31.

As for social, #BeyonceBowl trended No. 1 worldwide on X on Christmas Day, replacing #Christmas. After her performance, Netflix occupied 10 of the Top 12 trending topics on Twitter in the United States. Elsewhere in the world, #NFLonNetflix reached the No. 2 spot in Australia; the No. 3 spot in the U.K. and Germany; and the No. 5 spot in Brazil and France.

“Bringing our members this record-breaking day of two NFL games was the best Christmas gift we could have delivered,” Bela Bajaria, Netflix chief content officer, said in a Thursday statement. “We’re thankful for our partnership with the NFL, all of our wonderful on-air talent, and let’s please not forget the electrifying Beyoncé and the brilliant Mariah Carey.”

“We’re thrilled with our first Christmas Gameday on Netflix with NFL games being streamed to a global audience,” Hans Schroeder, NFL executive vice president of media distribution, added. “Fans in all 50 states and over 200 countries around the world watched some of the league’s brightest stars along with a dazzling performance by Beyoncé in a historic day for the NFL.”

The first game between Super Bowl champions the Kansas City Chiefs and the Pittsburgh Steelers kicked off at 1 p.m. ET, before the game between the Houston Texans and the Baltimore Ravens began at 4:30 p.m. ET.

Comedians Bert Kreischer and Nate Bargatze also made special appearances during the games, with Kreischer serving as a tailgate correspondent. The games were filled with commentary from football legends — including Drew Brees, RGIII, Manti Te’o, Nate Burleson, JJ Watt and Greg Olsen — as well as NFL mainstays like Laura Rutledge, Kay Adams, Mina Kimes, Devin McCourty, Jason McCourty, Ian Eagle, Noah Eagle, Melanie Collins, Stacey Dales, Jamie Erdahl, Steve Wyche, Ian Rapoport, Gene Steratore and Scott Hanson.

The Christmas Day NFL games come in the wake of the Mike Tyson-Jake Paul fight hosted and live-streamed by Netflix, whose streaming glitches raised concerns for the Christmas games. The Nov. 15 event, which featured several other fights, brought in over 108 million viewers worldwide, according to Netflix, making it the most-streamed global sporting event ever.

Netflix will continue to expand its live sports programming with WWE Monday Night Raw, which is set to debut on Monday, Jan. 6. Beyoncé’s halftime show will also be available as a standalone special.

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The media conglomerate’s data was removed from Nielsen’s Media Information Tape, a service provided to advertising agencies that acts as a one-stop shop to view ratings and check them against their ad buys to determine if they hit their targets.

“All of our clients continue to have a full view of the marketplace, as Nielsen continues to measure Paramount networks and streaming services. However, we have removed Paramount data from transactional files,” a spokesperson for the ratings measurement firm told TheWrap in a statement. “We have made this data available in good faith over the past three months, even without Paramount as a client.”

Nielsen said that removing the data is a “necessary step to safeguard the investments of our paying partners.”

“We remain open to future collaboration with Paramount under fair terms.  We’re engaged with select clients who are impacted and are guiding them through this update,” the statement concluded.

In a memo to ad agencies, Paramount Advertising president John Halley said the media giant would continue to provide Nielsen with the “first party schedule and program information they require to accurately measure our viewership,” including for live events. 

“To be clear, Nielsen will be in possession of the relevant data but will be suppressing your access to that data.  This decision was made by Nielsen and will affect the value and utility of your Nielsen data and tool licenses,” Halley said. “Rest assured, we have a clear path forward to maintaining the continuity of value your advertisers receive from investing with us.”

“We will continue to send you stewardship, plans, etc., in terms of alternative currency, and will work with your teams to provide holistic supply looks at the market, in terms of that data, for use in your upfront planning,” he continued. “We understand this is disruptive.  We will bear as much of the operational burden as possible, and will continue to strive to be the best partners in the market.”

Nielsen and Paramount’s contract has been expired since Oct. 1.

Paramount has argued that Nielsen’s costs as a percentage of the company’s ad revenue have “quintupled” over significant parts of its business, and proposed fees exceed the total ad revenue of the network being measured in some instances. In the interim, the company has been using VideoAmp as its data partner and said it’s prepared to make a permanent switch.

Meanwhile, Nielsen says that Paramount is demanding a “nearly 50% reduction” in the price of its service, which “not only undervalues our substantial investments, but makes it unsustainable to provide the support and quality that all Nielsen clients rely upon.”

“We can not reset the value of our services to a fraction of their worth due to the circumstances and demands of one client,” CEO Karthik Rao said in a memo last month. “We are an industry solution and price integrity matters for the role we play in the industry.” 

Nielsen has dominated media measurement for the better part of a century. Advertisers largely depend on its data, which includes the Streaming Top 10 and The Gauge, in order to help determine their spending on commercials as audiences shift from linear TV to streaming.

But TV networks have complained that the firm is not measuring audiences as well as it should amid the transition from linear to streaming. In 2021, the MRC found that the firm undercounted viewers during the COVID-19 pandemic, which temporarily resulted in a suspension of their national accreditation.

Over the past six months, Nielsen has launched new capabilities to expand its measurement around audience and out-of-home viewing. Its data currently covers 45 million households and 75 million devices in the U.S. alone. While Nielsen’s national accreditation was recently renewed by the MRC, the move did not include local, big data or digital measurement.

Amazon has notably used Nielsen’s big data panel measurement tools for its “Thursday Night Football” ratings. It also recently struck an agreement with Netflix to measure live ratings of the streamer’s NFL Christmas Day Games, with the two parties collaborating on first-party streaming data. Netflix also struck a deal with VideoAmp to deliver cross-screen and live viewership measurement starting with the launch of WWE in January.

The dispute with Nielsen comes as Paramount has been tightening its belt ahead of a merger with Skydance Media, laying off 15% of its U.S. workforce to generate $500 million in annual run rate cost savings. The advertising division is among the already impacted areas.

“This really is not about affordability. It’s about getting the value we need for what we pay,” Paramount Global co-CEO George Cheeks told analysts during the company’s third quarter earnings call. “We haven’t seen any adverse impact on ad revenue to date and we don’t expect a material impact in Q4. But I do want to be clear that we do recognize that Nielsen can be a valuable resource. It’s just that the economics have to make sense for the business.”

A recent survey by Advertiser Perceptions found that 2 in 3 advertisers agree a multi-currency landscape is the future, but the respondents agreed that the marketplace needs an agreed-upon shortlist of no more than five providers. About 3 in 5 used alternative currencies for TV transactions in the past 12 months and said they are using more TV currencies, reporting three for 2024 with plans to add one more to their roster within the next two years.

VideoAmp, which is not accredited by the MRC, is certified by the Joint Industry Committee, which represents advertisers, agencies and media owners. Other ratings measurement competitors include Comscore and iSpot.tv, which have both received accreditations from the MRC.

The post Nielsen Pulls Paramount Data From Advertiser Analysis Tool as Contract Dispute Drags On appeared first on TheWrap.