Sports and news programming helped continue traditional linear television’s dominance in the American living room, though streaming platforms earned a collective milestone of their own in April, according to the latest monthly report from Nielsen.
In its The Gauge report for April, Nielsen noted that linear television — broadcast and cable — accounted for 45.3 percent of all time spent with TV, while streaming platforms had 44.3 percent of time spent with TV.
Separately, cable TV announced for 24.5 percent of time spent with TV in April, with cable networks boosted by ESPN’s presentation of the NFL Draft and the network’s coverage of the NBA Playoffs. The Fox News Channel also helped cable’s share of TV time, with the panel program “The Five” representing nine of the top 10 telecasts, Nielsen noted.
Broadcast TV amassed 20.8 percent of time spent with TV, boosted by the wind-down of the March Madness tournament and the Masters golf tournament, both aired on CBS.
On a sequential basis, time spent with traditional linear TV was down slightly, while streaming platforms increased their share by a half-percent.
YouTube continued to be the dominant streaming platform of the bunch, accounting for 12.4 percent of time spent with TV in April, up from a flat 12 percent in March. Netflix was in second place, with 7.5 percent of time spent with TV, down 0.4 percent. Disney’s streaming services — Disney Plus, ESPN Plus and Hulu — accounted for 5 percent of time spent with TV in April, unchanged from the prior month. Nielsen began counting Disney’s streaming services together earlier this year.
Among free, ad-supported streaming services, The Roku Channel continued to dominate, accounting for 2.4 percent of time spent with TV. Fox-owned Tubi came in second, with 2 percent of time spent with TV. Paramount-owned Pluto TV is now counted as part of a single “Paramount” group, so it isn’t clear how it would have ranked; in the past, Pluto TV held around 1 percent of time spent with TV.
Nielsen said streaming’s share of time spent with TV reached a record high in April — the third consecutive month that streaming platforms achieved that milestone.
The April 2025 coverage period counts time spent with TV between March 31 and April 28. Nielsen’s broadcast TV calendar runs from Monday through Sunday.
