Commentary

Broadcast TV Reaches 91% Of Streamers, Linear TV At 14% Ad Share

by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, January 16, 2025

While all streaming platforms continue to show growth -- and take share away from traditional TV platforms (networks and TV stations) -- there is still plenty of “power” left for broadcast/linear platforms, according to the Television Bureau of Broadcasting (TVB).

A recent study done for the TVB, a major TV ad trade organization, by market research company GfK says broadcast TV currently reaches 91% of streaming video-on-demand viewers. This also applies to those that subscribe without advertising.

And while ad-supported streaming and digital platform businesses are showing continued gains, the study points out that there still exists a huge piece of the streaming marketplace where subscribers watch ad-free streaming platforms. All this gives linear TV platforms advertising opportunities.

The GfK survey finds that 61% of Netflix subscribers do not see advertising, and more than half of Disney+ (53%) and Max (57%) subscribers also are ad-free customers.

Even YouTube -- which Nielsen Total TV says commands the largest streaming share of viewing, at 10.8% in November 2024 -- sees commercial avoidance.

Nearly three-quarters of YouTube viewers (74%) who see advertising either skip the commercial when available or, if not available, click away from content.

Touting consumers' core home usage, the report says the TV set is the device most used to stream and view content.

The GfK 2024 SVOD study surveyed 4,000 respondents.

A just-released report by the IAB projects that linear TV, while slipping to some extent, is still projected to maintain a 13.7% share of advertising spend in 2025 -- down from 14.4% in 2024.

Linear TV will see a double-digit percentage decline in actual dollar advertising spend this year -- 12.7% lower, according to the IAB -- due to the absence of major political and Olympic advertising spend. It was up 4.3% in 2024 versus the year before.

An estimate from Oberlo says that for 2025, TV advertising revenues will drop 4.7% to $57.7 billion.

ad spending, advertising, audio, connected tv, digital, digital-out-of-home, display, gaming, linear tv, paid search, podcasts, research, streaming, television, video

2 comments about "Broadcast TV Reaches 91% Of Streamers, Linear TV At 14% Ad Share".

Check to receive email when comments are posted.

Douglas Ferguson from College of Charleston, February 5, 2025 at 1:34 p.m.
Reach is not frequency
Reply

Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, February 5, 2025 at 5:29 p.m.

Wayne, some comments. First, all that the GFK study found was that a lot of Netflix users still watch its ad-free service so they don't get served ads while watching.it. But its not true----as is suggested---- that they do not see any TV ads. Many of them also watch streaming services which carry ads as well as linearTV.

Second point concerns linear TV's share of total ad spend---14%. That's a meaningless statistic as a large percentage of the media included in the total is for sales promotion, not branding campaigns---- like search, direct response, store listings, etc. Yep, linear TV's share of branding ad dollars is slowly declining, but it's still quite large. In fact, the amount spent by national advertisers on "TV"---that's linear and/or streaming---is increasing, not decreasing.