Netflix's Growth, Peacock's Struggles, and the New Streaming Hierarchy

The Town with Matthew Belloni

The Ringer

Society & Culture

4.3 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 3 February 2026

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Town is on video! Subscribe to our new YouTube channel HERE! Matt and Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw parse through the final batch of year-end streaming reports and bring their most interesting stats and story lines to debate what they say about the state of streaming. They discuss the overwhelming success of 'KPop Demon Hunters,' Peacock’s disastrous Q4, the power of syndicated TV shows, and the new streaming hierarchy (00:00). Matt finishes the show with a prediction about Disney theme parks (30:20). Producers: Craig Horlbeck, Jessie Lopez, and Jon Jones Theme Song: Devon Renaldo ZOOTOPIA 2. FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION FOR BEST ANIMATED FEATURE. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	It is Monday, February 2nd, before we start some big news for the town.
0:09.2	We're on YouTube.
0:10.7	Yes, video has come for the town.
0:12.6	Same show.
0:13.5	Still in all the platforms you currently use, just now available with my face and my Dodger
0:17.4	hats on YouTube and Spotify, The Town with Matt Bellany.
0:22.0	Follow us with the link in the episode description.
0:24.6	Please be nice in the comments.
0:25.9	Craig gets his feelings hurt very easily.
0:28.3	All right, on to the show.
0:29.9	It's February, so we are officially done with the year-end charts and data
0:34.0	and everything about what entertainment we all consumed in 2025.
0:39.3	The stats have been coming fast and furious. Netflix's numbers were way up, but the share of the top shows declined.
0:43.3	K-pop demon hunters blew away all the other movies,
0:46.3	but Netflix made a lot fewer movies in 25 than the previous few years.
0:51.3	The biggest show of the year, according to Luminate, was Love Island,
0:54.8	really? With Stranger Things just dominating in December? Feels a bit dubious. Heated rivalry
1:00.2	generated 8 million views per episode in December. Not bad, but not good enough for Nielsen's
1:05.9	chart. Even today, Disney's earnings report revealed some growth in streaming, but disappointing numbers in streaming profits.
1:13.5	And Comcast just announced another huge quarterly loss for Peacock.
1:17.4	Remember, back in 2020, Comcast predicted Peacock would be profitable in 2025.
1:22.3	Not so much in 2026.
	...

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