Streaming Statistics 2026
By Axis Intelligence Research
Co-author: Alex Rivera | Last updated: September 24, 2026 | License: CC BY 4.0
Streaming captured 49.0% of all US television viewing in July 2026, per Nielsen’s The Gauge (published September 10, 2026). Axis Intelligence Research calculates that streaming now draws 1.283 minutes for every minute of broadcast and cable combined — the Streaming-Linear Crossover Ratio (SLCR) — up from 1.014 in May 2025.
Quick Answer
Streaming held 49.0% of US TV viewing in July 2026, against 19.5% for broadcast and 18.7% for cable (Nielsen). According to Axis Intelligence Research, YouTube alone accounts for 29.0% of all streaming time on US TV sets, and Netflix earns roughly 25.6 cents per hour of viewing — about eight times Roku’s platform revenue per streaming hour.
Key Findings
- Axis Intelligence Research finds the Streaming-Linear Crossover Ratio (SLCR) reached 1.283 in July 2026, meaning US viewers spent 28% more TV time on streaming than on broadcast and cable combined.
- According to Axis Intelligence Research, YouTube accounted for 29.0% of all US streaming time on TV sets in July 2026 (14.2% of total TV ÷ 49.0% streaming share, Nielsen).
- Axis Intelligence Research estimates Netflix generated about $0.256 of revenue per viewing hour in H1 2026, dividing $24.81 billion in revenue by the 97 billion hours Netflix reported.
- Cable lost 3.5 share points of US TV viewing in twelve months, falling from 22.2% in July 2025 to 18.7% in July 2026, per Nielsen’s The Gauge.
- YouTube’s Q2 2026 ad revenue of $11.06 billion is 3.7 times Netflix’s full-year 2026 ads target of about $3 billion, according to Axis Intelligence Research’s comparison of Alphabet and Netflix disclosures.
What Share of TV Viewing Is Streaming in 2026?
Streaming accounted for 49.0% of total US TV viewing in July 2026, in the report Nielsen published on September 10, 2026 — up 0.5 points from June. Streaming usage rose 3.4% month over month while total TV usage rose 2.2%, a July lift Nielsen attributed to the final weeks of the FIFA World Cup 2026 and streaming’s usual summer climb.
The three categories, month by month, from Nielsen’s own releases:
US TV Viewing Share by Category (Nielsen The Gauge)
| Month | Streaming | Broadcast | Cable | Broadcast + Cable | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2025 | 44.8% | 20.1% | 24.1% | 44.2% | Nielsen, Jun 17 2025 |
| July 2025 | 47.3% | 18.4% | 22.2% | 40.6% | Nielsen, Aug 19 2025 |
| May 2026 | 48.6% | 19.2% | 20.4% | 39.6% | Nielsen, Jul 28 2026 |
| June 2026 | 48.5% | 19.8% | 19.5% | 39.3% | Nielsen, Aug 18 2026 |
| July 2026 | 49.0% | 19.5% | 18.7% | 38.2% | Nielsen, Sep 10 2026 |
Broadcast + Cable column calculated by Axis Intelligence Research. The remaining 12.8% of July 2026 viewing falls in Nielsen’s “other” category (gaming, DVD playback, unmeasured tuning).
How Did Streaming, Broadcast and Cable Change Year Over Year?
Comparing July 2026 with July 2025, streaming gained 1.7 share points, broadcast gained 1.1 points, and cable dropped 3.5 points. Linear TV as a whole — broadcast and cable together — fell 2.4 points to 38.2%.
That broadcast gain is not a comeback. It is the World Cup. Nielsen reported that FOX affiliates’ viewing rose 73% in June and another 36% in July on tournament coverage, and FOX finished July with 7.8% of all TV time. Strip the tournament out of next summer’s comparison and broadcast’s line will look like cable’s.
Alex Rivera, co-author: The number people will quote is 49.0%. The number that matters for your cable bill is 18.7%. Cable is the category bleeding carriage value, and it lost more share in one year than streaming gained. Sports kept broadcast upright this summer; nothing kept cable upright.
What Is the Streaming-Linear Crossover Ratio (SLCR)?
The Streaming-Linear Crossover Ratio (SLCR) is an Axis Intelligence Research metric that expresses streaming’s TV viewing share as a multiple of broadcast and cable combined. An SLCR of 1.000 marks the crossover point; above it, streaming outdraws all of linear TV.
Formula: SLCR = streaming share ÷ (broadcast share + cable share), all inputs from the same monthly Nielsen Gauge release.
Why a ratio instead of the headline percentage? Because the headline percentage hides the denominator shift. Streaming moved from 48.6% to 49.0% between May and July 2026 — a 0.4-point change that sounds flat. Over the same span linear shrank from 39.6% to 38.2%, and the SLCR moved from 1.227 to 1.283. The ratio shows the gap widening even when the headline barely twitches.
SLCR Readings, 2025–2026
| Month | Streaming | Broadcast + Cable | SLCR | Inputs source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2025 | 44.8% | 44.2% | 1.014 | Nielsen The Gauge |
| July 2025 | 47.3% | 40.6% | 1.165 | Nielsen The Gauge |
| May 2026 | 48.6% | 39.6% | 1.227 | Nielsen The Gauge |
| June 2026 | 48.5% | 39.3% | 1.234 | Nielsen The Gauge |
| July 2026 | 49.0% | 38.2% | 1.283 | Nielsen The Gauge |
Calculated by Axis Intelligence Research from Nielsen’s published monthly shares. Anyone can recompute every reading from the inputs above.
May 2025 is the natural anchor: Nielsen identified it as the first month streaming exceeded broadcast and cable combined, and the SLCR confirms it at 1.014. Year over year, the July reading rose 0.118, from 1.165 to 1.283.
What Will Move the SLCR This Fall?
Two things, one real and one methodological. The real one is football: NFL and college football historically lift broadcast from September onward, so expect the SLCR to fall back in autumn readings. The methodological one is bigger. Nielsen has said The Gauge will adopt new universe estimates from the Advertising Research Foundation’s DASH study this fall, and its May 2026 release notes that updates will reflect currency enhancements for the new TV season, with back data supplied to clients. Industry trade coverage expects that recalibration to credit linear slightly more than the current method.
That makes the July 2026 reading the most recent one on the current basis — and the reason the SLCR series will carry a clear break marker when the first recalibrated month lands. A drop in the October-reported ratio should not be read as viewers returning to cable until the like-for-like back data is published.
Which Streaming Services Get the Most TV Viewing Time?
YouTube is the most-watched distributor on US television, with a record 14.2% of all TV viewing in July 2026, and it led Nielsen’s Media Distributor Gauge by 5.0 share points. For a deeper platform-by-platform breakdown, see our streaming market share analysis.
Platform Share of Total US TV Viewing (Latest Nielsen Reading)
| Service / group | Share of total TV | Month | Basis | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| YouTube | 14.2% | July 2026 | The Gauge | Nielsen |
| Netflix | 8.0% | May 2026 | Media Distributor Gauge | Nielsen |
| Disney streaming properties | 4.7% | July 2026 | The Gauge | Nielsen |
| Prime Video | 4.5% | May 2026 | The Gauge (platform best) | Nielsen |
| The Roku Channel | 3.1% | May 2026 | The Gauge (platform best) | Nielsen |
| Peacock | 2.6% | July 2026 | The Gauge | Nielsen |
| Paramount Streaming (Paramount+ and Pluto TV) | 2.3% | May 2026 | The Gauge | Nielsen |
Nielsen’s public releases do not restate every platform every month; each row carries the most recent month Nielsen published for that service.
How Much of All Streaming Is YouTube?
Axis Intelligence Research divides YouTube’s share of total TV by streaming’s share of total TV to get YouTube’s slice of streaming itself: 14.2 ÷ 49.0 = 29.0% in July 2026, up from 13.4 ÷ 47.3 = 28.3% in July 2025. Roughly three of every ten streamed minutes on American TV sets now run through one ad-supported, creator-fed platform — not a studio catalog.
Which Streaming Titles Drove Summer 2026 Viewing?
Peacock’s Love Island USA was the most-streamed title in both June and July 2026, generating 4.9 billion viewing minutes in July and 11.7 billion across the two months combined, per Nielsen. Peacock’s share of TV climbed to 2.6% in July, helped by Telemundo’s Spanish-language World Cup simulcasts; Nielsen reported that Hispanic viewing on Peacock rose nearly 200% in June versus May.
Alex Rivera: Peacock is the case study for 2026. Two shows — a reality dating series and a soccer tournament — moved it a full share point in two months. That’s what live and appointment programming does to engagement minutes, and it’s why every service is chasing sports rights at prices that would have looked absurd three years ago.
How Much Money Do Streaming Services Make in 2026?
Viewing share and revenue tell different stories, and the gap between them is where the industry is fighting now. Here is the latest quarter for the companies that report streaming economics directly.
Streaming Company Results, Quarter Ending June 2026
| Company | Metric | Value | Year-over-year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Netflix | Revenue | $12.56B | +13.4% | Netflix Q2’26 letter |
| Netflix | Operating margin | 33.4% | vs 34.1% | Netflix Q2’26 letter |
| Disney (Entertainment SVOD) | Revenue | $5.53B | +11% | Disney 8-K, Aug 5 2026 |
| Disney (Entertainment SVOD) | Operating income | $712M | vs $329M | Disney 8-K |
| Disney (Entertainment SVOD) | Operating margin | 12.9% | — | Disney 8-K |
| Roku | Platform revenue | $1.22B | +25% | Roku 8-K Ex. 99.1 |
| Roku | Streaming hours | 37.9B | +7% | Roku 8-K |
| Spotify | Revenue | €4.8B | +14% | Spotify, Aug 4 2026 |
| Spotify | Premium subscribers | 300M | +9% | Spotify |
| YouTube | Advertising revenue | $11.06B | +13% | Alphabet Q2 2026 release |
Disney’s quarter ended June 27, 2026. YouTube figure from Alphabet’s Q2 2026 earnings release as reported by Variety; Alphabet does not publish a standalone YouTube subscription revenue line.
Is Streaming Profitable Now?
For the leaders, yes. Netflix reported a 33.4% operating margin in Q2 2026 and guides to 31.5% for the full year, on revenue it now expects at $51.0–51.4 billion. Disney’s Entertainment SVOD business earned $712 million in operating income, more than double the $329 million of a year earlier.
But the spread between them is wide. Axis Intelligence Research calculates a 20.5-point gap between Netflix’s company operating margin and Disney’s SVOD segment margin in the June 2026 quarter. That compares a whole company with a segment inside one, so read it as an order of magnitude, not a precise handicap.
How Much Does Netflix Earn per Hour Watched?
Netflix disclosed that members watched more than 97 billion hours in the first half of 2026, up 2% year over year, alongside H1 revenue of $24.81 billion. Axis Intelligence Research divides the two: about $0.256 per viewing hour. Because Netflix reports “more than” 97 billion hours, the true figure sits slightly below that — treat $0.256 as a ceiling.
Roku reports both sides of its own equation too: $1.221 billion in Q2 platform revenue across 37.9 billion streaming hours, or $0.032 per hour.
We are not merging these into an industry average, and the reason is the point: Netflix owns the catalog and sells the subscription; Roku owns the home screen and takes a cut of ads and subscriptions sold across it. The roughly 8-to-1 spread is what it costs to own the content versus own the doorway to it.
Alex Rivera: Netflix’s view hours grew 2%. Its revenue grew 13%. That gap is pricing and ads, not more watching. Netflix itself says live events will take just over 5% of its 2026 content spend but only about 1% of view hours — and that live events produced six of its top ten new-member sign-up days in five years. They’re buying sign-ups, not minutes.
How Big Is Streaming Advertising in 2026?
Advertising is the growth line everyone reports and few isolate. The disclosed numbers:
- YouTube booked $11.06 billion in ad revenue in Q2 2026, up from $9.79 billion a year earlier, per Alphabet’s Q2 2026 results.
- Netflix says it remains on track for about $3 billion in 2026 ad revenue, roughly doubling 2025.
- Disney’s Entertainment SVOD ad revenue grew only 3% to $851 million; Disney attributed the soft line to a 4% drop from lower rates, partly offset by 8% more impressions.
- Roku grew advertising revenue 25% to $672.8 million.
Axis Intelligence Research’s comparison: YouTube’s ad revenue in a single quarter was 3.7 times Netflix’s full-year ads target.
Why Are Streaming Ad Prices Falling?
Disney’s filing names the mechanism: “continued marketplace supply growth.” Every major SVOD now has an ad tier, and the supply of premium CTV inventory is growing faster than demand. More impressions at lower rates is the classic signature of an ad market absorbing new supply — the same pattern Spotify flagged in audio, where it cited softness in pricing against growth in impressions sold.
Nielsen’s Ad Supported Gauge puts the inventory shift in context: streaming took a record 46.6% of ad-supported TV viewing in Q1 2026, ahead of broadcast (28.2%) and cable (25.2%).
How Much Do Streaming Services Cost in 2026?
Prices below were read directly from each service’s US plan page on September 23, 2026, before tax.
Netflix and Peacock US Prices (Verified September 23, 2026)
| Service | Ad-supported plan | Ad-free plan | Monthly cost of skipping ads | Ad-free ÷ ad-supported | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Netflix | $8.99 (Standard with ads) | $19.99 (Standard) | $11.00 | 2.22× | Netflix Help Center |
| Netflix | — | $26.99 (Premium, 4K) | — | — | Netflix Help Center |
| Peacock | $12.99 (Premium) | $19.99 (Premium Plus) | $7.00 | 1.54× | Peacock plans |
| Peacock | $8.99 (Select, ads, no sports/originals) | — | — | — | Peacock plans |
Difference and multiple columns calculated by Axis Intelligence Research.
On Netflix, removing ads costs $132 a year ($11.00 × 12). Netflix’s ad-free Standard plan now costs more than twice its ad tier — a pricing architecture built to push households toward ads, which is exactly where Netflix’s $3 billion ads target needs them.
Note that Peacock’s “ad-free” Premium Plus still carries ads in live sports, events and channels, per Peacock’s own plan description. On sports-heavy services, “no ads” is a partial promise.
How Does Streaming Compare Across Countries?
The US figure is not the world figure. Nielsen publishes a Gauge for Poland, and Ofcom publishes annual UK data. The methodologies differ — Poland’s Gauge classifies live OTT viewing of TV channels as streaming, while the US Gauge assigns such app-based linear viewing to broadcast or cable — so Axis Intelligence Research does not combine these into a single ratio. They belong side by side.
Streaming Adoption: United States, United Kingdom, Poland
| Market | Indicator | Value | Date | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | Streaming share of TV viewing | 49.0% | July 2026 | Nielsen The Gauge |
| Poland | Streaming share of TV-screen viewing | 11.0% (record) | August 2026 | Nielsen Gauge Poland |
| Poland | YouTube / Netflix share of TV | 2.8% / 1.9% | August 2026 | Nielsen Gauge Poland |
| United Kingdom | Viewers who turn to Netflix first / BBC first | 26% / 25% | 2026 survey | Ofcom Media Nations 2026 |
| United Kingdom | Households with an SVOD service | ~70% | 2026 | Ofcom Media Nations 2026 |
| United Kingdom | YouTube on TV sets, minutes per person per day | 19 (vs 9 in 2022) | 2025 | Ofcom Media Nations 2026 |
What Does the UK Data Say About Streaming?
Ofcom’s Media Nations 2026, published July 29, 2026, shows 26% of UK viewers turn first to Netflix when choosing what to watch, level with the BBC at 25% — Ofcom notes the one-point gap is not statistically significant. Subscription streaming has plateaued at about 70% of homes, while broadcaster on-demand services such as BBC iPlayer and ITVX grew viewing 9% year on year.
The YouTube shift is the sharpest number in the report. Daily YouTube viewing on UK TV sets rose from 9 to 19 minutes per person between 2022 and 2025 — Axis Intelligence Research calculates that as 111% growth. The TV set now carries 46% of in-home YouTube minutes (19 of 41). Weekly broadcaster reach fell to 70% in 2025, from 73% in 2024 and 78% in 2022.
Alex Rivera: The UK and US tell the same story at different speeds. In both, YouTube is winning the living room, not the phone. And in the UK, the SVOD ceiling is visible: household penetration has barely moved in five years, so growth comes from price and ads — the same playbook Netflix is running in America.
How Big Is Music and Audio Streaming in 2026?
Spotify reached 300 million Premium subscribers in Q2 2026, the first audio service to do so, alongside 777 million monthly active users, €4.8 billion in revenue and a record 33.4% gross margin, per Spotify’s August 4, 2026 announcement. Operating income reached €655 million.
Axis Intelligence Research calculates Spotify’s paid conversion rate at 38.6% (300M ÷ 777M) and its operating margin at about 13.6% (€655M ÷ €4.8B, using Spotify’s rounded revenue figure). For the full market picture, see our music streaming statistics and Spotify statistics.
Methodology
Collection. Axis Intelligence Research compiled this dataset between September 22 and 23, 2026, exclusively from documents fetched and read during production: Nielsen’s The Gauge monthly releases (US and Poland) and Ad Supported Gauge; SEC-filed earnings exhibits for The Walt Disney Company and Roku; Netflix’s Q2 2026 shareholder letter; Spotify’s Q2 2026 earnings announcement; Alphabet’s Q2 2026 results; Ofcom’s Media Nations 2026; and the live US plan pages of Netflix and Peacock. Every figure carries its source URL and retrieval date in the companion CSV.
Derived figures and formulas.
- SLCR = streaming share ÷ (broadcast share + cable share), same Nielsen release for all inputs.
- YouTube share of streaming = YouTube share of total TV ÷ streaming share of total TV.
- Netflix revenue per view hour = H1 2026 revenue ($24,809.7M) ÷ H1 2026 view hours (97B); upper bound.
- Roku platform revenue per streaming hour = Q2 2026 platform revenue ($1,221.0M) ÷ Q2 2026 streaming hours (37.9B).
- Cost of skipping ads = ad-free plan price − ad-supported plan price; multiple = ad-free ÷ ad-supported.
- Year-over-year changes = July 2026 value − July 2025 value, in share points.
Scope notes. Nielsen’s The Gauge covers viewing on TV sets only, persons 2+, and excludes streaming on phones and computers. Company financials are global unless noted; Nielsen shares are US. Where methodologies are incompatible — US versus Polish Gauge definitions, Netflix versus Roku business models — this report presents figures side by side rather than combining them. The SLCR series will be marked with a break when Nielsen’s recalibrated Gauge begins.
About This Dataset
The companion file streaming-statistics.csv contains 195 rows: every number in this article, one observation per row, with source_org, source_document, source_url, retrieved_date, is_primary and axis_calculated columns, plus a method_note for each Axis-calculated figure. Temporal coverage: May 2022 (Ofcom baselines) through September 2026; spatial coverage: United States, United Kingdom, Poland, global company results.
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0). Reuse freely with attribution: Axis Intelligence Research, Streaming Statistics 2026, axis-intelligence.com/streaming-statistics/.
How to Cite This Report
APA: Axis Intelligence Research, & Rivera, A. (2026). Streaming statistics 2026: 49% of US TV time, who gets paid for it, and the Streaming-Linear Crossover Ratio. Axis Intelligence. https://axis-intelligence.com/streaming-statistics/
MLA: Axis Intelligence Research, and Alex Rivera. “Streaming Statistics 2026: 49% of US TV Time, Who Gets Paid for It, and the Streaming-Linear Crossover Ratio.” Axis Intelligence, 24 Sept. 2026, axis-intelligence.com/streaming-statistics/.
Chicago: Axis Intelligence Research, and Alex Rivera. “Streaming Statistics 2026: 49% of US TV Time, Who Gets Paid for It, and the Streaming-Linear Crossover Ratio.” Axis Intelligence, September 24, 2026. https://axis-intelligence.com/streaming-statistics/.
Streaming Questions, Answered With Data
Has streaming overtaken cable TV?
Yes, by a wide margin. In July 2026 streaming took 49.0% of US TV viewing versus 18.7% for cable, per Nielsen. Streaming first exceeded broadcast and cable combined in May 2025, and by July 2026 it drew 1.283 minutes for every linear minute (Axis Intelligence Research SLCR).
Will Nielsen’s new measurement lower streaming’s share?
Possibly. Nielsen plans to fold ARF DASH universe estimates and currency enhancements into The Gauge this fall, and trade coverage expects linear to gain slightly. The July 2026 reading (49.0%) uses the current basis; compare future months only against Nielsen’s recalibrated back data.
Why is YouTube counted as TV?
Nielsen’s The Gauge measures what plays on a television screen, whatever the source. YouTube watched on a smart TV counts as streaming, and it reached 14.2% of all US TV time in July 2026 — about 29% of all streaming on TV sets.
Is Netflix still growing if viewing is flat?
Revenue is; hours barely are. Netflix view hours grew 2% in H1 2026 while Q2 revenue grew 13.4%, per its shareholder letter. The difference came from price increases, membership growth and advertising, which Netflix expects to reach about $3 billion in 2026.
How much more does ad-free Netflix cost?
$11.00 more per month in the US as of September 23, 2026: $19.99 for Standard versus $8.99 for Standard with ads, or $132 a year. The ad-free plan costs 2.22 times the ad tier, per Netflix’s Help Center pricing page.
Which streaming service makes the most money from ads?
YouTube, by far. Alphabet reported $11.06 billion in YouTube ad revenue for Q2 2026 alone — 3.7 times Netflix’s full-year 2026 ads target of about $3 billion, per Axis Intelligence Research’s comparison.
Are streaming ad rates going down?
At Disney, yes. Disney reported that lower rates cut its Entertainment SVOD ad revenue by 4% in the quarter ended June 27, 2026, offset by 8% more impressions, citing growth in marketplace supply. Spotify reported similar pricing softness in audio ads.
Is streaming profitable for Disney?
Yes. Disney’s Entertainment SVOD business (Disney+ and Hulu) earned $712 million in operating income on $5.53 billion of revenue in its fiscal Q3 2026, a 12.9% margin — up from $329 million a year earlier, per Disney’s SEC filing.