• by Wayne Friedman , Yesterday

High-profile sporting events -- the Super Bowl, the Milan Cortina Olympics and NFL playoff games -- helped to increase overall total day viewing in the first quarter of 2026 for ad-supported streaming and TV platforms over non-ad-supported platforms, according to Nielsen.

Broadcast networks -- NBC in particular -- witnessed a slight boost versus the first quarter of 2025, at 28.7% versus 28.2%.

Streaming platforms saw a much greater increase -- 46.6%, from 42.4% a year ago -- also thanks to more sports on streaming platforms, which includes Peacock (Olympics and Super Bowl) and Amazon Prime Video (NFL playoff games).

Non-sports content also helped push the advertising share for streaming higher. Nielsen says major entertainment programming including Netflix's "Stranger Things,"  Paramount+'s “Landman” and HBO Max’s “The Pitt” also contributed.

Cable TV networks continue to see declining ad-supported TV share, down almost four percentage points -- at 25.2% compared to 28.2% a year ago.

Nielsen's measurement for ad-supported TV, which started a year ago, is part of its monthly Nielsen Gauge measure that examines total TV and streaming -- both ad-supported and non-ad supported.

Nielsen says the Gauge and this latest ad supported quarterly update has not shifted as yet to account for the ARF DASH-based media related universe estimates. That release is scheduled to start up this fall. 

“This is significant because this approach, while consistent with previous months of the Gauge, will have different results than production data," Nielsen says. 'Production data' refers to data clients can pull themselves -- data already includes the DASH updates.

This story has been updated.