Sports activities accounted for practically 30% of all ad-supported TV viewing amongst adults ages 25 to 54 within the fourth quarter, in line with new insights from Nielsen. As compared, broadcast with out sports activities comprised 9.8% of the full viewership pie, cable with out sports activities made up 18% and streaming with out sports activities made up 43%.
In the meantime, when taking a look at adults ages 18 to 49, the group spent 63.8% of their time with ad-supported TV through the quarter. Inside that, 66.7% spent their time watching streaming, whereas 33.4% spent their time with linear. Broadcast made up 17.8% of linear’s whole, whereas cable made up the remaining 15.6%.
Moreover, Nielsen notes that 81.1% of viewing on streaming for adults ages 18 to 49 happens on ad-supported tiers of platforms like YouTube, Netflix, Disney+ Hulu, Prime Video, HBO Max, Peacock and Paramount+, whereas the remaining 19% comes from free, ad-supported streaming platforms, equivalent to The Roku Channel, Tubi and Pluto TV.
The findings, which had been launched as a part of Nielsen’s upfront planning information, come after the agency’s newest ad-supported gauge discovered that ad-supported TV represented 74.2% of all TV viewing within the fourth quarter, its highest level all through all of 2025.
The determine marked a 9% enhance from the third quarter and outpaced the 7% enhance in whole TV viewing as soccer and younger adults helped drive the surge.
Thursday’s evaluation relies on Nielsen’s nationwide TV panel knowledge and streaming platform scores from Sept. 29 to Dec. 28 of final 12 months.
