YouTube Vs. Netflix: Streamers Top Usage Leaderboard In December, Sector Makes More Gains On Broadcast And Cable

Netflix Inc NFLX tied its best platform market share and YouTube hit a record share in December, continuing the dominance of the streaming sector.

What Happened: New data from Nielsen points to a strong December for the streaming sector including Netflix, who is set to report fourth-quarter financial results on Jan. 21 after market close.

For the month of December, streaming hit a market share of 43.3%, up 9% from November and up significantly from the previous year-over-year period of December 2023 when the market share was 35.9%.

Broadcast television had market share of 22.4%, cable television had market share of 23.8% and other options came in at 10.6%, according to the report.

Nielsen reported that overall television and streaming viewership was up 4% from November, with the tracking period dated Nov. 25 through Dec. 29 including Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Four of the days in the tracking period hit 100 billion TV viewing minutes, including Thanksgiving and Christmas. For comparison, nine days in all of 2024 had over 100 billion minutes of TV viewing and 2023 had 13 days with over 100 billion minutes of TV viewing.

YouTube led the way during the December tracking period with 11.1% market share, hitting a new record for the company owned by Alphabet Inc GOOGGOOGL.

Netflix was another winner with 8.5% market share, tying a record from July 2023. The company saw its market share up 14% from November thanks to the success of NFL games on Christmas day and the release of the highly anticipated second season of "Squid Game."

Nielsen reported that Netflix's December monthly usage would have still been up 11% without the two NFL games, showing the significance of its new monthly content like "Squid Game" and the movie "Carry-On." With the tracking period counting up until Dec. 29 and "Squid Game's" release coming on Dec. 26, the following month should have strong results as well.

Prime Video, which is owned by Amazon.com Inc AMZN, had 4.0% market share, trailing only YouTube and Netflix among streamers in December. This marked the best market share for Prime Video in a monthly Nielsen report. The company was led by a Black Friday NFL game and the release of Christmas movie "Red One" on the platform. Nielsen also highlighted that MrBeast's game show "Beast Games" had over 700 million viewing minutes for its first three episodes on Prime Video.

Here is the market share among streaming companies:

YouTube: 11.1%
Netflix: 8.5%
Prime Video: 4.0%
Hulu: 2.5%
Disney+: 2.1%
The Roku Channel: 2.0%
Tubi: 1.7%
Peacock: 1.6%
Paramount+: 1.4%
Max: 1.2%
PlutoTV: 0.9%

Outside of YouTube, Netflix and Prime, The Walt Disney Company MDIS would be the other streaming winner. Disney owns Hulu and Disney+, which have a combined market share of 4.6%.

Why It's Important: Streamers adding sports rights may be a major storyline to watch as cable and broadcast television compete.

The Nielsen report said broadcast and cable saw sports viewership up 17% and 29% respectively in December. Broadcast and cable see sports as one of the keys in not losing even more market share to streaming.

Streamers like Netflix are also disrupting the movie theater business model. New films are spending less time in theaters and hitting platforms like Netflix instead of being shown in cinemas.

JPMorgan analyst David Karnovsky recently predicted the 2025 domestic box office to grow revenue year-over-year. He cited concerns about supply and the output from Netflix as reasons to be cautious and not have too high of estimates.

The Nielsen report could provide a bullish take for Netflix ahead of Tuesday's earnings report.

Analysts expect the streaming company to report earnings per share of $4.19. That’s up from $2.11 in last year's fourth quarter, according to data from Benzinga Pro. Netflix has beaten analyst estimates for earnings per share in three straight quarters and eight of the last 10 quarters.

Analysts expect Netflix to report fourth-quarter revenue of $10.11 billion, up from $8.83 billion in last year's fourth quarter. The company has beaten analyst estimates for revenue in five straight quarters and seven of the last 10 quarters.

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