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Welcome to The Brief by Kuro House, your daily marketing update. I’m glad you’re joining us, whether you’re on your morning commute or sneaking in a quick break between meetings. Today, we’re diving into some of the most compelling stories shaping the media, advertising, and retail landscape—think record-breaking TV ratings, industry-defining mergers, and the latest in measurement drama. Let’s get started.

First up, let’s talk about the November 2025 Gauge Ratings from Nielsen, as reported by Adweek. Live sports are still the MVP of broadcast TV, with this November marking the best month for the segment since last year. Broadcast viewing rose slightly—up 0.3% from October to 23.2%—but still just shy of last November’s 23.7%. Thanksgiving Day was the absolute peak, clocking in a staggering 103.4 billion minutes of TV watched, thanks largely to NFL games and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. The Kansas City Chiefs versus Dallas Cowboys Thanksgiving matchup on CBS Sports alone racked up 11.7 billion viewing minutes, making it the month’s most-watched broadcast. Sports also gave streaming a boost: Peacock saw a 22% jump in usage, riding high on its NFL Sunday Night Football simulcasts and parade coverage. Paramount+ usage shot up 18.4%, fueled by NFL games and the return of its original series, Landman. Streaming continues to dominate as the top TV viewing format, capturing 46.7% of total usage in November, while cable slipped a bit. YouTube held the streaming crown with 12.9% of all viewing, followed by Netflix at 8.3%, which got a lift from the return of Stranger Things. Disney’s streaming bundle—Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu—dipped slightly to 4.7%, while Prime Video held steady at 3.8%. Notably, Peacock’s 1.9% share, though still trailing the big players, signals that live sports and event programming are increasingly critical to streaming growth.

Moving to the cable news front, the week of December 1, 2025, saw all major networks experience double-digit gains in primetime ratings, according to TVNewser via Adweek. Fox News led the pack with 2.088 million total viewers in primetime, up a massive 32% from the previous week, and 168,000 viewers in the key 25-54 demo. MS NOW—formerly MSNBC—also surged, up 34% in total viewers and 36% in the demo, averaging 965,000 in primetime. CNN saw more modest gains: up 22% in total viewers and 17% in the demo, with 499,000 primetime viewers. However, CNN was the only network to see a decline in the coveted demo during total day. Year-over-year, the picture is mixed: Fox News is actually down 16% in total viewers and 40% in the demo compared to last year, while MS NOW is up 53% in viewers and 43% in the demo. Programming-wise, Fox News dominated with 13 out of the 15 most-watched cable news shows—the Five led with 3.624 million viewers, and Gutfeld at 10 p.m. was tops in the demo with 278,000. The Rachel Maddow Show was MS NOW’s standout, ranking eighth overall. These numbers highlight just how much news consumption can swing around major events and holidays, and how competitive the primetime slot remains.

Now, let’s turn to one of the most seismic industry moves of the year: Omnicom’s $13.5 billion acquisition of Interpublic Group (IPG), as highlighted in Adweek’s roundup of 2025’s landmark deals. This is the largest deal in advertising history, and it’s shaking up the global agency landscape. Michael Kassan, a heavyweight dealmaker in media, called it the most important deal of the year, emphasizing that the merger gives the combined entity a serious advantage as technology continues to reshape advertising. The logic here is scale: as clients demand more integrated, tech-driven solutions, the sheer size and combined resources of Omnicom and IPG position them to compete more aggressively—not just with other holding companies, but with consultancies and tech giants encroaching on the space. The deal is part of a broader wave of mega-mergers and AI-fueled strategy shifts, signaling that the pace of consolidation in media and marketing isn’t slowing down anytime soon.

Speaking of bold moves, JCPenney is trying to stage a comeback with some creative, buzzworthy marketing, according to another Adweek article. The retailer’s new holiday campaign leans into the idea that you don’t have to spend a fortune to impress. In a cheeky twist, JCPenney riffed on Jeff Bezos’ much-publicized $46 million Venice wedding by staging “The Other Venice Wedding” for a young couple in Venice, California—on a far more modest budget, courtesy of JCPenney. The campaign’s message: you paid less than people think, and nobody has to know. It’s a playful, relatable approach that positions JCPenney as the savvy shopper’s secret weapon, especially during the holidays. Led by CMO Marisa Thalberg, this strategy is all about creating shareable moments and tapping into cultural conversations—something legacy retailers desperately need to stay relevant in a crowded market.

Finally, let’s touch on the ongoing measurement drama between Nielsen and the Video Advertising Bureau, also reported by Adweek. The VAB released a scathing report calling Nielsen’s big data + panel (BD+P) measurement “unstable, inconsistent, and destabilizing.” Their analysis found wild audience swings—45% to 58% of total hours had more than a 20% variance between BD+P and the old panel-only system, especially in key buying demos like 25-54, 18-49, and 18-34. Even live NFL games weren’t immune, with 16% to 40% of hours showing double-digit variances that could mean the loss of hundreds of thousands of viewers in key demos. VAB CEO Sean Cunningham said the system has already hit “worst-case scenario,” with pervasive volatility across 33 networks. Nielsen fired back, calling the VAB’s analysis “seriously flawed and manipulated,” arguing that data was pulled incorrectly and didn’t account for time zone differences in live sports. Nielsen’s own analysis, they say, shows gains for more than 70 networks. The truth? The industry is stuck in a messy transition: media buyers told Adweek that, despite the issues, Nielsen’s offering is still the default because rivals like VideoAmp haven’t stepped up. Even Nielsen’s CEO admits it’s not just a data change, but a full workflow and process overhaul. For marketers, this means ongoing uncertainty around audience guarantees and ad currency—something everyone will be watching closely in 2026.

That’s a wrap for today’s Brief. From record-breaking TV moments to industry-shaking deals and the ongoing battle over measurement, it’s clear that the media and marketing world is in flux—full of both challenges and bold new opportunities. Thanks for tuning in, and remember: staying sharp means staying curious. We’ll see you tomorrow.