Hallmark and Football Dominate TV as Viewers Streamed Record Amounts This December. Nielsen just released its Media Distributor Gauge for December 2025, and the results show that people really wanted two things over the holidays: football and Hallmark Christmas movies.
Streaming hit an all-time high on Christmas Day, reaching 55.1 billion viewing minutes. Big names like Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery saw huge boosts, but the Hallmark Channel held its own by owning the movie space on cable.
While the giant streamers fought over sports, The Hallmark Channel dominated the traditional cable movie rankings. The network managed to snag the top five most-watched movie slots for the entire month. Leading The Hallmark Channel Countdown to Christmas was Lacey Chabert and Andrew Walker in ‘She’s Making a List’.
If you were watching a movie on cable this December, chances are it was one of these:
- She’s Making A List 1.62 Million
- Single On The 25th 1.55 Million
- A Suite Holiday Romance 1.48 Million
- A Make Or Break Holiday 1.42 Million
- Oy To The World 1.35 Million
Hallmark’s holiday dominance shows no signs of slowing down. Following a successful winter season, the network is looking ahead to 2026, where Lacey Chabert will star in the highly anticipated Holiday Ever After: A Disney World Wish Come True, now filming on-site at Disney World.
Other Highlights from December:
Disney saw the biggest jump across all platforms. Their share grew to 10.7%, mostly because of ESPN. Monday Night Football and the expanded College Football Playoffs pushed ESPN’s viewership up by 30%. At the same time, Freeform doubled its audience by playing classics like Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph.
Netflix also had a massive month, landing in the third-place spot with a 9% share. They hosted an NFL doubleheader on Christmas Day and benefited from people finishing the final season of Stranger Things.
Amazon Prime Video reached a record 4.3% share. Between Thursday Night Football and the new season of Fallout, people spent more time on the platform than ever before.
The Roku Channel is also worth watching. It hit a 3.0% share this month. To put that in perspective, the platform has grown 190% since December 2023. It’s becoming a serious player in the streaming world.
It wasn’t good news for everyone. Traditional broadcast networks (like ABC, CBS, and NBC) saw their numbers drop. This happened because there were fewer big sports events on those specific channels compared to November. Cable news was also down, as people likely swapped politics for holiday films and games.
December was a win for whoever had the rights to a football game or a feel-good romance. While January was also a good month for The Hallmark Channel and Hallmark+, February starts ‘Loveuary‘. Fun Fact: The Hallmark Channel’s most-watched movie of 2025 was not a Christmas Time Holiday Movie; it was actually a Loveuary Movie starring Lacey Chabert in ‘An Unexpected Valentine.’
