Over 40% of advertising viewed on television in the United States is through online platforms. The rest is split evenly between broadcast and subscription television channels. This analysis comes from an extension to The Gauge report from Nielsen.
In the first quarter of 2025, 72.4% of television viewing was on advertising supported platforms. Perhaps surprisingly, that leaves 27.6% of total television viewing not supported by advertising.
Of the advertising supported television viewing, 42.4% is accounted for by streaming, with 28.9% on subscription channels, which Nielsen classifies as cable, and 28.7% on what it calls broadcast channels.
The new analysis comes from enhancements to Nielsen Streaming Platform Ratings powered by its Streaming Meter.
According to the Nielsen Gauge report for March, a record 43.8% of total television viewing in the United States was from streaming, with cable and broadcast at 24.0% and 20.5% respectively. The streaming category does not include channels delivered through online multichannel services, which are still attributed to either cable or broadcast. The remaining 11.7% is unmeasured audio and video, gaming, and playback from other devices like disc players. YouTube and Netflix lead the online services, with 12.0% and 7.9% of total television viewing respectively.