Holiday Streaming Is Surging

Every year, streaming viewership spikes during the holiday season as students return home, settle in, and binge their favorite shows. For enrollment marketers, this period offers a rare opportunity to reach your audiences in a high attention environment. And for AmbioEdu clients, holiday campaigns consistently deliver some of the strongest performance of the entire year.

Holiday Streaming TV Trends

Seasonal streaming habits show clear and consistent increases:

• Nielsen reports that streaming reached 43.4 percent of total TV usage last December.
• Streaming now represents almost half of all TV viewing with a long term share of roughly 44.8 percent.
• Comcast Advertising data shows that about 91% of households watch holiday programming, consuming an average of 21 hours of holiday movies, TV, and music specials each season.

This is not a minor shift in behavior. It is a major realignment toward digital viewing and an important window for student engagement.

Why This Matters for Higher Education

During winter break, students are:

• Home
• Rested
• Streaming more than usual
• Planning next steps
• Sitting with parents and influencers

This dynamic creates the perfect environment for brand visibility and message reinforcement. Households are watching together and students are in a reflective mindset about the coming year. It is a moment when strategic performance TV has an outsized impact.

The Case for Holiday Streaming in Higher Ed

Universities that run campaigns during the holiday season benefit from:

• Increased exposure during a predictable spike in viewership
• Stronger brand lift and familiarity heading into spring recruitment
• Opportunities to engage stealth prospects who have not yet raised their hand
• Enhanced retargeting across all devices in the household
• Reporting and attribution that connect exposure to actual enrollment outcomes

AmbioEdu’s clients often see sharper performance during the holidays because our AI driven targeting adapts in real time to where high intent students are watching.

Final Takeaway

The holiday streaming surge is measurable, predictable, and increasing. Students are watching more content, engaging across devices, and sitting in living rooms where parents also see your ads. This is one of the most impactful times of the year for enrollment visibility.

A holiday performance TV strategy helps universities enter spring with stronger awareness, a deeper funnel, and more students already considering their institution. It is one of the simplest ways to gain a competitive advantage during a season when attention is naturally higher and distractions are naturally lower.