When it comes to streaming media, Ken Rutkowski and I were really some of the earliest pioneers and evangelists of streaming media. We not only did it daily, with the World Technology Roundup, but we also evangelized it, started a company that was too early, Plus Media, and were working on the front lines of an industry where we were way too early, dating back to the late 1990s.
Since then I’ve been watching the slow-motion revolution in television for years now, and folks, we’ve just crossed the Rubicon. Nielsen’s May 2025 data confirms what many of us have long suspected was coming: streaming has officially surpassed the combined might of cable and broadcast TV.
This isn’t just another incremental shift. It’s the tipping point we’ll look back on as the moment when the old guard definitively lost its crown.
The Numbers Don’t Lie (And They’re Staggering)
Let me share what jumped out at me from Nielsen’s latest report. Streaming now commands a whopping 44.8% of total TV viewing time—its highest share ever—while broadcast (20.1%) and cable (24.1%) together account for just 44.2%.
Think about that for a second. The entire traditional television ecosystem—the foundation of American entertainment for seven decades—now captures less audience attention than streaming platforms that barely existed a decade ago.
The trajectory here is what really tells the story. Since 2021, streaming usage has skyrocketed by 71%, while broadcast and cable have plummeted by 21% and 39% respectively. This isn’t a gentle transition; it’s a seismic shift reshaping the entire media landscape.
YouTube’s performance particularly fascinates me—claiming 12.5% of all TV viewing and growing by an astonishing 120% since 2021. Remember when we thought of YouTube as just a place for cat videos and amateur content? Now it’s bigger than any individual TV network in America. Netflix holds steady at 7.5%, but the real surprise might be those scrappy FAST services (free ad-supported streaming TV) like PlutoTV and Tubi, which together already outperform any single broadcast network.
Corporate America Is Scrambling to Adapt
I’ve spent enough time covering the business side of tech and media to recognize panic when I see it. The boardrooms of legacy media companies are in full crisis mode—and with good reason.
Warner Bros. Discovery is splitting into streaming-first and cable divisions. Comcast and Charter are spinning off their legacy assets. Nexstar and Sinclair are eyeing consolidation plays. These aren’t minor adjustments; they’re existential pivots.
The cold, hard numbers explain why: cable penetration has collapsed from 86% to just 51% of U.S. households in a decade. Once-mighty networks like HGTV and TLC have hemorrhaged nearly half their viewers since 2019. Even sports channels—long considered the final bulwark against cord-cutting—are showing cracks in their armor. And, given I was around the earliest of days with PRISM in Philadelphia, I recall the doubt and then success around cable sports. Those who thought it wouldn’t work, were wrong. And those who did, made money. Lots of money.
Wall Street, never one for sentimentality, is pushing executives to jettison underperforming legacy divisions and go all-in on streaming. The message is clear: adapt or die.
What This Means For All of Us
As someone who’s been watching media transitions since the early internet days, I find certain patterns repeating themselves. Remember how print publications initially dismissed digital? How radio scoffed at podcasts? The same defensive posture appeared when streaming first emerged—”People will always want the lean-back experience of traditional TV,” they said.
Well, the viewers have spoken, and they’ve chosen flexibility—the freedom to watch what they want, when they want, how they want. The on-demand, bingeable, mobile-friendly nature of streaming has proven irresistible, especially to younger audiences who now view traditional TV schedules with the same bewilderment my generation once reserved for rotary phones.
What’s particularly interesting is how streaming’s dominance spans both ends of the economic spectrum. Premium subscription services like Netflix and Disney+ are thriving alongside free, ad-supported platforms like YouTube and Tubi. This multi-tiered approach has created a streaming ecosystem that’s both broader and more inclusive than traditional TV ever managed to be.
Meanwhile, legacy television networks increasingly resemble what industry insiders have started calling “ghost channels”—running endless reruns or cheap reality programming while their audiences steadily evaporate. It’s a holding pattern that can’t last forever.
The Ad Money Is Following Eyeballs
Perhaps the most telling statistic from Nielsen’s report is this: 72.4% of total TV viewing now happens on ad-supported platforms, with streaming alone accounting for 42.4% of that pie. The advertising dollars—always the lifeblood of television—are following the audience migration. And you wonder why Roku and Amazon are teaming up to sell commercials?
For decades, TV advertising was sold on the promise of mass reach. Now, streaming platforms are offering something potentially more valuable: targeted reach with detailed metrics. As someone who’s read years of recaps about the countless number of upfront presentations that have been shared over the years, I can tell you the difference in pitch is stark. Legacy TV is selling nostalgia and habit; streaming is selling precision and innovation.
Where Do We Go From Here?
Will this milestone fluctuate in the coming months? Almost certainly. Live sports seasons tend to temporarily boost linear TV numbers, and the streaming landscape itself remains volatile with mergers, new entrants, and evolving business models. Just look at Apple. The MLS deal was a tell. Now the push for the film, F1 and the rumors of a bigger play in Formula 1 streaming. This is Apple’s edge play. Don’t chase the deals that are already too expensive—leave that for Google and Amazon to fight over. Instead find niches. Just like the cricketeers are doing, as there’s lots more money where there’s no dominant player.
But the direction is unmistakable. We’ve crossed a threshold from which there’s no turning back. Streaming isn’t just the future of television—it’s the present.
For consumers, this transition brings both opportunities and challenges. More choice and flexibility, certainly, but also the fragmentation of content across multiple platforms and subscription fees that can quickly add up. The rise of ad-supported tiers suggests the market is already correcting for subscription fatigue.
For the industry, the path forward requires radical reinvention. Legacy media companies must transform themselves into digital-first enterprises or risk becoming the next Blockbuster—a cautionary tale of what happens when you cling to outdated business models in the face of technological disruption.
I’ve been watching media transitions long enough to know that declaring anything “dead” is usually premature. Traditional TV will likely persist in some form for years to come—just as radio survived television and newspapers survived the internet. But its cultural and economic centrality? That chapter is closing before our eyes.
The revolution wasn’t televised after all. It was streamed.