While the rise of sports programming in recent years has been well-documented, new figures from Nielsen illustrate the extent of its dominance.
The measurement firm said sports accounted for 29.2% of all advertising-supported TV viewing by people 25 to 54 years old during the fourth quarter. The stat, spanning broadcast, cable and streaming, stat was part of a report on viewership trends in the fourth quarter of 2025, released Thursday in the runup to upfronts.
Looking at the rest of the pie without sports, broadcast accounted for just 9.8%, with cable coming in at 18%. Streaming drew by far the largest tune-in, with 43% of all non-sports viewing, a reflection of the overall growth of advertising on streaming services like Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, HBO Max and others.
Among adults aged 18 to 49, 63.8% of overall viewing was ad-supported, with 36.2% ad-free. Streaming is by far
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