Streaming Holds Steady in a Lighter Summer Viewership Season
NEW YORK – July 29, 2025 – Nielsen, a global leader in audience measurement, data and analytics, today announced that viewing of content with ads gained 1.2 share points in the second quarter of 2025, finishing with 73.6% of overall TV viewing, in the second installment of its Ad Supported Gauge, an extension of The Gauge™.
Coinciding with the start of summer in many areas of the U.S., the Q2 2025 edition of this report revealed several key growth areas, namely:
- Viewing to content with ads gained 1.2 share points to finish at 73.6%, and the complementary non-ad supported component dropped to 26.4% share.
- Streaming picked up 2.9 share points compared to Q1 with the majority of that (2.7 share points) shifting over from ad-supported broadcast and the remaining 0.2 share points being given up by cable.
- The cable category had the benefit of a strong news cycle as well as broad coverage of the NBA playoffs while the streaming platforms continued to introduce newly available seasons of popular shows such as Love Island USA, Squid Game and Ginny & Georgia, as well as recently re-released series such as Animal Kingdom and Blindspot.
Specifically, the report found that overall viewing in Q2 was down by 9% compared to Q1 and viewing to ad supported content was down by 8%. Ad-Supported broadcast dropped 16% and ad-supported cable was down by 8%. Ad-supported streaming held flat during a season when viewers tend to dial back their media consumption.
Earlier this year, Nielsen reported that streaming reached a historic milestone in May as its share of total TV usage outpaced the combined share of broadcast and cable for the first time ever, per the company’s May The Gauge™ report. That report found that streaming represented 44.8% of TV viewership in May 2025, its largest share of viewing to date, while broadcast (20.1%) and cable (24.1%) combined to represent 44.2% of TV.
Now in its second edition, Nielsen’s Ad Supported Gauge provides the broadest view of the portion of television that delivers advertising across broadcast, cable and streaming. With these new insights, advertisers and agencies will have an essential, up-to-date view of opportunities to connect with consumers across ad-supported platforms in the fall 2025 TV season.
About Nielsen
Nielsen is a global leader in audience measurement, data and analytics. Through our understanding of people and their behaviors across all channels and platforms, we empower our clients with independent and actionable intelligence so they can connect and engage with their global audiences—now and into the future. Learn more at www.nielsen.com and connect with us on social media (X, LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram).
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