Sports accounted for nearly 30% of all ad-supported TV viewing among adults ages 25 to 54 in the fourth quarter, according to new insights from Nielsen. In comparison, broadcast without sports comprised 9.8% of the total viewership pie, cable without sports made up 18% and streaming without sports made up 43%.
Meanwhile, when looking at adults ages 18 to 49, the group spent 63.8% of their time with ad-supported TV during the quarter. Within that, 66.7% spent their time watching streaming, while 33.4% spent their time with linear. Broadcast made up 17.8% of linear’s total, while cable made up the remaining 15.6%.
Additionally, Nielsen notes that 81.1% of viewing on streaming for adults ages 18 to 49 occurs on ad-supported tiers of platforms like YouTube, Netflix, Disney+ Hulu, Prime Video, HBO Max, Peacock and Paramount+, while the remaining 19% comes from free, ad-supported streaming platforms, such as The Roku Channel, Tubi and Pluto TV.
The findings, which were released as part of Nielsen’s upfront planning guide, come after the firm’s latest ad-supported gauge found that ad-supported TV represented 74.2% of all TV viewing in the fourth quarter, its highest point throughout all of 2025.
The figure marked a 9% increase from the third quarter and outpaced the 7% increase in total TV viewing as football and young adults helped drive the surge.
Thursday’s analysis is based on Nielsen’s national TV panel data and streaming platform ratings from Sept. 29 to Dec. 28 of last year.
