Streaming viewership continues to outpace TV watching
Streaming viewership continues to outpace TV watching
New data from Samba shows that even titles which premiere on TV and streaming simultaneously are watched via streaming more.
As data from Nielsen continues to show, streaming has inarguably overtaken linear TV as the primary means of watching TV in the United States. But Samba TV’s “State of Streaming” report for the fourth quarter of 2025 digs even further into those numbers, showing that even TV shows that originate on linear TV get most of their viewership on streaming.
Key Details:
- Crossover hit: Sixty-seven percent of viewership for shows available on both linear and streaming happens on streaming.
- Left behind: Even shows that premiere on linear TV originally are being watched more often via streaming.
- Who stands to gain?: Disney+ and Paramount+ are in a strong position to benefit from the abandonment of linear TV.
According to Samba’s data, streaming accounts for 60% of all TV viewing time, with linear viewing accounting for just 40%. Samba’s methodology includes live TV streaming services like Fubo and YouTube TV as streaming viewing time — an important distinction to keep in mind, as these services stream channels that are traditionally available via linear pay-TV plans.
When given the choice to watch a program on TV or streaming, viewers are choosing streaming more often. In all, 67% of viewership for shows that appear both on linear TV and on streaming services occurs on streaming. Shows like “Alien: Earth” and “The White Lotus” saw greater than 90% of their viewership come from their respective streaming partners Hulu and HBO Max.
Even shows that first appear on linear and see a brief delay before becoming available on streaming are getting much more viewership from the latter source. Popular titles on ABC, CBS, and Fox are drawing much more viewership once their episodes begin streaming on demand.
Samba’s data shows many of this year’s most popular primetime shows are doing better on streaming. Click to expand.
The data bodes well for two streaming services in particular: Disney+ and Paramount+. Disney+ is due to fully integrate Hulu at some point in 2026, and when that happens, it will offer next-day streams of primetime shows from both ABC and Fox as part of its library. Paramount+ similarly gets next-day streams of beloved CBS primetime shows, and even Peacock benefits by getting NBC’s primetime lineup.
Fox has licensed next-day streaming rights of its primetime shows to Disney through 2027, but when that year comes, it may well want to consider reclaiming those rights in order to send those titles to its new streamer Fox One instead. The trend of watching titles that debut on linear primarily on streaming is unlikely to see a major reversal, and Fox likely doesn’t want to be the only broadcast network sending its primetime content to another company for on-demand viewing for much longer.
Disney+
Disney+ is a video streaming service with over 13,000 series and films from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic, The Muppets, and more. It is available in 61 countries and 21 languages. It is notable for its popular original series like “The Mandalorian,” “Ms. Marvel,” “Loki,” “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” and “Andor.”