In May 2025, the television experience reached a milestone, sending an urgent call-to-arms to those who are fighting the scourge of piracy.
For the first time, people who seek a TV experience have become more likely to seek it via a streaming service than via broadcast or pay TV – both the US and in the UK.
In the US, The Nielsen Company found that nearly 45% of total TV usage was via streaming. Free Ad-Supported Television (FAST) constituted nearly 6% of TV viewing in May. PlutoTV, Roku Channel and Tubi combined for 5.7% of total TV viewing in May, which was larger than any individual broadcast network this interval.
In Nielsen’s analysis, it was clear that streaming has become the dominant viewing format with a usage increase of 71% from May 2021 through May 2025, while broadcast and cable viewing have declined (down 21% and 39%, respectively
Nielsen also found that YouTube represented 12.5% of all television viewing in May, which was the highest share of TV for any streamer to date.
UK parallels the US
Meanwhile, adults in the UK spend more time watching TV on mpbile phones, according to IPA TouchPoints data from The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA). According to the findings, British adults now use their mobile phones for an average of 3 hours and 21 minutes per day. By comparison, they watch a TV set for an average of 3 hours and 16 minutes per day
In the UK, screen time in general has increased by nearly an hour per day. When all screen-based activities are combined, including mobile phones, TV sets, laptops, tablets, and games consoles, British adults now spend an average of 7 hours and 27 minutes per day consuming screen-based media. This represents an increase from 6 hours and 36 minutes in 2015, according to IPA.
But TVs are still a good place to be: IPA said that British adults are 52% more likely to feel relaxed when watching the TV set compared to viewing video on a mobile phone.
Not just the UK and US
Streaming, of course, is also prevalent around the world, and in emerging economies in Africa, Latin America and Asia where pay TV is out of reach altogether for many consumers.
Further reading
Streaming reaches historic TV milestone, eclipses combined broadcast and cable viewing for first time. News release. June 2025. A.C. Nielsen Company.
Brits spend more time on their mobiles than watching TV set for the first time. News release. IPA TouchPoints. June 25, 2025. The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising
Why it matters
“(The situation is) a clear signal of how embedded mobile phones have become in our daily lives – always on, always within reach and increasingly central to how we consume content, connect and unwind,” said Dan Flynn, Deputy Research Director, IPA
Karthik Rao, CEO of Nielsen added that “(This inflection point is) a credit to media companies, who have deftly adapted their programming strategies to meet their viewers where they are watching TV – whether it’s on streaming or linear platforms.”
