Streaming ended September 2025 with a total TV share of 45.2%. Following the end of Streaming’s growth streak in August, September marked the second month in a row that the category saw a total TV share decline.
Key Takeaways
- Streaming’s total TV share dropped for the second consecutive month, falling to 45.2% in September 2025, down from a peak of 47.3% in July.
- Driven by NFL and college football viewership, Broadcast TV saw a major boost, rising to 22.3% in September, and marking its largest monthly increase ever.
- Most major streaming platforms (YouTube, Netflix, Disney, Warner/Discovery) saw declines, while The Roku Channel held steady and Tubi dipped slightly.
After six months of continuously breaking its own record, Streaming ended August with a 46.4% total TV share, a decline from July’s 47.3%. With 45.2% reported by Nielsen for September, the category encountered yet another decline last month, even dipping below June’s 46% share.
Similar to Streaming, Cable also saw a decline, albeit not to the same degree. After closing out July with 22.2%, and August with 22.5%, Cable’s share for September totaled 22.3%.
In contrast to Streaming and Cable, Broadcast saw a big increase last month. Following an increase to 19.1% in August, up from July’s 18.4%, Broadcast’s share jumped to 22.3% in September.
According to Nielsen, this marked Broadcast’s largest monthly increase in the history of its The Gauge reporting, with NFL and college football cited as a primary driving force behind the increase.
“Time spent watching broadcast programming shot up 20% month-over-month (compared to +3% across all TV) to generate an impressive gain of 3.2 share points, notching the largest monthly increases in volume and share for any category in The Gauge since tracking began in May 2021,” Nielsen explained.
Most Streaming Services Declined In September
With the entire Streaming category seeing a decline in September, it is not surprising that many individual streaming services encountered a decline as well.
Although YouTube continued its dominance, its share dropped to 12.6% (down from 13.1% in August).
YouTube wasn’t the only platform to see a decrease in September, with Netflix dropping to 8.3% (down from 8.7%), Disney (Disney+, ESPN Select and Hulu) dropping to 4.5% (down from 4.6%), and Warner/Discovery (HBO Max and Discovery+) dropping to 1.3% (down from 1.4%).
Although no increase, Peacock remained steady at 1.4%, as did Prime Video with 3.9%, and Paramount Streaming with 2%.
No New Growth For Free Streaming Services
In spite of Streaming’s decline last month, free streaming services managed to maintain their share. While they didn’t see any notable growth in August, they didn’t see any decline either.
For The Roku Channel, a similar situation unfolded last month. After increasing its share to 2.8% in July, and maintaining 2.8% in August, The Roku Channel again saw no change, accounting for 2.8% in September as well.
That wasn’t the case for Tubi. In spite of maintaining its 2.2% share in August, as it had over the previous few months, Tubi encountered a total TV share decline in September, dropping from 2.2% to 2.1%.
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