Podcast Summary

Podcast: The Town with Matthew Belloni
Episode: Who Won (and Lost) the Year in Streaming?
Date: December 31, 2025
Host: Matthew Belloni (Matt)
Guest: Julia Alexander, Media Correspondent at Puck

Episode Overview

In the final episode of 2025, Matt and Julia Alexander deliver a comprehensive rundown of the streaming industry’s winners, losers, trends, and surprises of the year. Using hard data and inside industry knowledge, they analyze who led the pack—YouTube, Netflix, Disney, and newcomers like Tubi—what shows broke out, and what platforms faltered. The discussion digs into ratings, subscriber counts, strategy pivots, and the ongoing evolution of how and where people watch TV.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. State of the Streaming Wars

• YouTube’s Dominance

  • Consolidated its lead over subscription services in terms of time spent, especially on TVs.
  • Big content deals: exclusive NFL games, Oscars broadcasting starting 2029.
  • Monthly Active Users (MAUs): 2–2.5 billion globally.
    • "You cannot talk about streaming in 2025 without YouTube... Between 2 and 2.5 billion MAUs globally." – Julia [07:02]

• Netflix: Still King Among Paid Streamers

  • Over 300 million global subscribers; most hit shows, but share of total viewership dipped below 20%.
  • Strategic moves: Chasing podcasts—including deals with The Ringer, possible HBO Max acquisition.

• Other Major Platforms:

  • Prime Video: Approx. 200 million MAUs (exact subscriber count unclear).
  • Disney+: 131.6 million; total Disney streaming (with Hulu, etc.) near 200 million.
  • HBO Max: 128 million, strong international growth.
  • Paramount+: ~80 million.
  • Hulu: 60 million.
  • Peacock: 41 million (stagnant, domestic).
  • Apple TV+: Lack of clarity, estimates range from 35–45 million (debated).

• Shift Towards Bundling & Global Expansion

  • Disney and HBO Max aggressively pursue linear-parallel bundles and international market conversions.

2. Top 10 Most-Watched Shows & the Power of Library Content

• Bluey (Disney+): THE breakout hit, 39.3 billion minutes viewed as of November.

  • "The fact that they can find this kind of cultural zeitgeist y sticky content for kids in an era of YouTube...speaks to where Disney's strength has always lied."_ – Julia [08:33]

• Rest of the top 10 (2025):

  • Grey’s Anatomy
  • Squid Game
  • K Pop Demon Hunters (film)
  • NCIS
  • Wednesday
  • SpongeBob SquarePants
  • Bob’s Burgers
  • Animal Kingdom (old TNT series on Netflix)
  • Blindspot (old NBC series on Netflix)

• Notable Insight: No new shows entered Nielsen’s annual top 10—first time ever.

3. Platform-Specific Performance

• Peacock
  • Struggled with growth and relevance; Love Island was the rare breakout.
  • "So much of what is available on Peacock...people can get through a VMVPD [virtual cable company] like YouTube TV." – Julia [11:57]
• Heated Rivalry (Bell Media’s Crave/HBO Max)
  • Surprising performance, strong niche following, but potentially overhyped by selective metrics.

4. The Complexities of “Hits” in the Streaming Age

• Different measures (Nielsen, internal streamer stats, global/local) make “hit” status murky.
• Shows like Heated Rivalry can feel omnipresent within specific social algorithms but lack broad penetration:
  • “...it does make it seem like this is suddenly the only thing everyone’s talking about, when really it’s very something small” – Julia [17:32]

5. Trends Shaping the Streaming Landscape

a. Rise of Free (AVOD) Services

• Tubi Awarded “Streamer of the Year” by Julia
  • Tubi and Roku Channel saw fastest growth in share of viewing time.
  • Viewers accept heavy ads for free content; large library of old/licensed content succeeds.
• Quote:
  • “People are willing to sit through an insane amount of ads in order to just watch free content.” – Julia [20:48]

b. Social Video on the Big Screen

• More time spent viewing Reels, TikTok, Shorts—now moving to TVs (20% of social video time watched on TVs).
• Connected TV (CTV) ad spend: fast growth, threatening traditional linear TV ad dollars.
  • “The sewer is on the TV and it’s just another channel you flip to.” – Matt [24:07]
• Traditional broadcasters may lose market share/ad revenue as viewing fragments further.

c. Sports Rights as the Last Great Prize

• Massive investments from tech giants (Amazon, Netflix, Google) escalating the cost of live sports rights.
  • Example: Amazon’s NFL Thursday Night, NBA Cup Finals, more exclusive bidding expected.
• This spending cannibalizes budgets for scripted/original programming.
  • “Amazon, Netflix, Google. Coming in means that the cost of specific sports rights is going to continue to escalate...” – Julia [26:52]

6. Biggest Surprises and Misses

• Biggest Surprise Hit: Heated Rivalry (by Julia’s metric, for breaking its niche and catalyzing interest in romantic/romantasy-adapted series)
• Most Disappointing Streamer: Disney+ (stagnant subscriber/viewer growth, lack of new cultural phenomena outside of Bluey)
• Worst Performer: Peacock (stagnation, lack of demanding exclusive content)

7. Podcasting & YouTube Strategy

• Netflix entering podcast video: Ringer/Barstool-type shows debuting on the platform.
• Experiment, but Netflix’s UI/UX not as creator/social-friendly as YouTube’s.
  • “Netflix doesn’t have the capacity or capability...to do the kind of SEO mini channels targeting specific audiences that YouTube does exceptionally well.” – Julia [29:16]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Streaming’s Maturity:

  • “...this year in streaming kind of felt not boring...It started to feel like a regular business.” – Julia [24:07]
  • Matt: "They're trying to buy their way to growth...That's what regular old media companies do. That's not what tech unicorns do." [24:26]

• On YouTube’s Evolution:

  • “A decade later, the conversation around YouTube is that it is the future of TV. It’s where Roger Goodell wants to put an NFL game.” – Julia [25:47]
  • Matt: “The Oscars! The Oscars—you’re going to have the most glamorous people in the world parading on the red carpet on YouTube.” [25:53]

• On Fragmentation and “Event TV” in Theaters:

  • Discussion on Netflix’s Stranger Things finale in theaters as a “marketing stunt”—tickets are free, revenue comes from food/beverage minimums.
    • “The theaters are going to make more than $20 million on the Stranger Things stunt in theaters.” – Matt [33:52]
    • Julia: “...the end game here might be Netflix subscribers get to see Warner Brothers movies in theaters, early access for free, or for some kind, some kind of a discount.” [34:53]

• On Social Video Threat:

  • Matt: “If you’re competing directly and generating bigger numbers with the sewer, then maybe you hold the nose and jump into the sewer.” [24:07] (on traditional TV competing against user generated video)

Timeline of Important Segments

| Timestamp | Segment / Key Topic | |------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------| | 00:54 | Opening reflections: Macro changes in streaming | | 03:56 | Current streamer stats, viewership, and subscriber breakdown | | 07:02 | YouTube’s centrality and scale in the streaming landscape | | 08:29 | Top shows of the year, “Bluey” dominance | | 11:06 | Peacock's stagnation; Love Island detail | | 13:08 | Heated Rivalry, niche hits vs. general market comparisons | | 17:06 | Performance wrap-up: winners, losers, surprises | | 18:58 | Heated Rivalry as surprise hit, missed opportunity for Amazon | | 20:41 | Why Tubi is Julia's streamer of the year | | 22:13 | Social video’s advance onto TV screens and ad/cultural implications | | 26:52 | Sports as the main battleground for future streaming wars | | 29:13 | Netflix’s podcast video push vs YouTube approach | | 32:30 | Netflix and theaters: Stranger Things finale event | | 34:01 | “Event-izing content”: could TV finales in theaters become common? |

Conclusion

This episode provides a data-rich, wry, and occasionally irreverent snapshot of streaming as 2025 draws to a close. Platforms have matured, audiences face more choice than ever, and the definition of a “hit” only blurs further. Free ad-supported services and live sports are on the rise, while tentpole originals prove more elusive. The future, the hosts suggest, will be about competing everywhere users are—especially on the biggest and smallest screens, and on whatever business model keeps people watching.

For those who didn't listen:
This summary gives you the contours of who won (YouTube, Tubi, occasionally Netflix), who faltered (Peacock, Disney+), which shows and formats broke out (Bluey, Love Island, surprise hits like Heated Rivalry), and how streaming is entering a new, possibly less-exciting but more sustainable phase—one shaped as much by libraries, live sports, and free video as by blockbuster series or tech hype.