Data on the global television market showed that there were an estimated 1.72 billion TV households worldwide in 2021. According to the source, this figure will continue to grow and surpass 1.8 billion by 2026.

How are viewers receiving their television content?

A more detailed look at television consumption by platform reveals that free-to-air digital terrestrial TV (FTA DTT) remains the most popular television distribution model worldwide. In addition to that, the latest reports also estimate that the number of IPTV households will exceed digital cable TV households for the first time in 2026. IPTV stands for internet protocol television and describes a new technology that delivers video content via the internet instead of traditional satellite or cable connections.

Spotlight on the United States

The number of TV households in the United States has been growing for decades. And yet, the U.S. pay TV penetration rate keeps dropping every year, mainly due to the ever-increasing accessibility and popularity of online video streaming options. Audiences no longer want to be tied to fixed broadcasting schedules, which is why many viewers are cutting the cord and canceling their pay TV bundles in favor of on-demand video content that can be watched whenever, wherever, and on whichever devices they want.

Data revealed that the number of traditional pay TV households in the United States stood at around 58 million in 2023. This figure will likely drop further over the next few years and amount to less than 41 million by 2028. Meanwhile, digital pay TV is becoming increasingly popular. Pay TV is fighting an uphill battle The United States is one of the largest pay TV markets worldwide based on penetration. But even though millions of viewers frequently tune in to watch their favorite shows, news broadcasts, and sports events on the small screen, the U.S. pay TV industry is facing enormous challenges. More viewers are canceling their cable or satellite subscriptions than ever, be it because of mounting prices, limited content offerings, or the proliferation of over-the-top (OTT) video services and streaming platforms. Based on the latest data, over half of TV households in the country are currently without a telco, cable, or satellite TV provider. Can cable companies combat subscriber loss? The cord-cutting movement and other recent changes in consumer behavior have had a substantial impact on the pay TV landscape and its players. In 2023, U.S. pay TV providers suffered a combined net subscriber loss of around five million viewers. This downward trend also extends to the largest pay TV providers in the U.S., such as Charter and Comcast. However, they have recently ventured into the world of streaming to offset subscriber losses, but whether this expansion will be enough to effectively combat churn remains to be seen.

Key information about United States Imports: Television

• United States Imports: Television was reported at 2,829,433.403 USD th in Dec 2022
• This records an increase from the previous number of 2,616,457.671 USD th for Dec 2021
• US Imports: Television data is updated yearly, averaging 9,136,521.873 USD th from Dec 1995 to 2022, with 28 observations
• The data reached an all-time high of 34,117,150.990 USD th in 2008 and a record low of 2,607,127.610 USD th in 2020
• US Imports: Television data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
• The data is categorized under World Trend Plus’s Association: Electronic Sector – Table RF.UNCTAD.TR: Television Receivers: Import Value

Key information about United States Exports: Television

• United States Exports: Television was reported at 2,829,433.403 USD th in Dec 2022
• This records an increase from the previous number of 2,616,457.671 USD th for Dec 2021
• US Exports: Television data is updated yearly, averaging 2,611,792.640 USD th from Dec 1995 to 2022, with 28 observations
• The data reached an all-time high of 4,804,095.399 USD th in 2017 and a record low of 868,790.301 USD th in 1995
• US Exports: Television data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
• The data is categorized under World Trend Plus’s Association: Electronic Sector – Table RF.UNCTAD.TR: Television Receivers: Export Value

United States PPI: Svcs: Info: BI: RB: TV: PS: Advertising Sales data was reported at 96.293 Jun2008=100 in Dec 2022. This records a decrease from the previous number of 96.997 Jun2008=100 for Nov 2022. United States PPI: Svcs: Info: BI: RB: TV: PS: Advertising Sales data is updated monthly, averaging 93.612 Jun2008=100 from Jun 2008 (Median) to Dec 2022, with 175 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 116.700 Jun2008=100 in Nov 2016 and a record low of 78.300 Jun2008=100 in Jul 2020. United States PPI: Svcs: Info: BI: RB: TV: PS: Advertising Sales data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United States – Table US.I096: Producer Price Index: by Industry: Services: Information.

Graph and download economic data for Total Revenue for Television Broadcasting, All Establishments, Employer Firms (REVEF51512ALLEST) from 2002 to 2022 about television, broadcasting, employer firms, accounting, revenue, establishments, services, and USA.

In 2023, NBC was the leading ad-supported television network in the United States, with an average viewership of 4.54 million, surpassing the viewership number of CBS. The latter recorded 4.51 people watchig the TV channel. Spotlight on CBS

CBS is among the oldest and most popular commercial broadcast television and radio networks in the United States. Founded in 1927, the company now operates as a subsidiary of Paramount, with all of its original programming available on the Paramount+ streaming platform. A closer look at the network's recent performance reveals that it ranked fourth among the leading television networks among U.S. adults in 2023. CBS reported an average of 676 thousand viewers between the ages of 18 to 49 that year and was only outperformed by NBC, Fox, and ABC. So what are audiences watching?

Popular television shows

According to the latest data, NFL Sunday Night Football was the most watched TV program in the United States during the 2022-2023 season. The sports broadcast, which aired on NBC, scored a respective 18.14 million viewers during that period. The three most popular fictional programs to make it into the top five were "Yellowstone", "NCIS," and "FBI" broadcast on Paramount Network and CBS.

Certified models meet all ENERGY STAR requirements as listed in the Version 9.0 ENERGY STAR Program Requirements for Televisions that are effective as of October 20, 2022 or the Version 9.1 Program Requirements that are effective as of April 14, 2023. A detailed listing of key efficiency criteria are available at https://www.energystar.gov/products/electronics/televisions/key_product_criteria.

United States - Producer Price Index by Commodity: Network Compensation from Broadcast and Cable Television and Radio: Affiliate Agreements, Programming Sales, and Retransmission Fees for Cable and Broadcast TV was 158.74500 Index Dec 2008=100 in February of 2022, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, United States - Producer Price Index by Commodity: Network Compensation from Broadcast and Cable Television and Radio: Affiliate Agreements, Programming Sales, and Retransmission Fees for Cable and Broadcast TV reached a record high of 158.74500 in January of 2022 and a record low of 100.00000 in December of 2008. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for United States - Producer Price Index by Commodity: Network Compensation from Broadcast and Cable Television and Radio: Affiliate Agreements, Programming Sales, and Retransmission Fees for Cable and Broadcast TV - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on March of 2025.

Samsung is the leader in the global television (TV) set market with a share of 28.4 percent in terms of sales volume in 2024. LG and TCL take second place with 16 and 12 percent in the same year, respectively. Overall, all companies saw increased market shares in 2024. TV market The global television market has developed remarkably over recent decades, notably with the introduction of new and advanced TV technologies. As a result of these innovations, the global TV market generated revenues of 97 billion U.S. dollars in 2024, with 209 television units shipped in the same year. The latest technologies include smart, OLED (organic light-emitting diode), AMOLED (active-matrix organic light-emitting diode), and QLED (quantum dot display) TVs, as well as higher resolutions such as 4K and 8K. For instance, smart TVs are traditional television sets with integrated internet features, allowing users to browse the internet and stream music and videos. Samsung and LG Electronics – the leading TV vendors The two Korean giants Samsung and LG Electronics are competitors in the consumer electronics markets. Both companies provide a variety of consumer electronics devices and household appliances, like washing machines and refrigerators. Both manufacturers stayed in step with the times regarding the development of TV technology, being active in the market since the ‘90s. Particularly, over the years, the two leaders produced TVs featuring the above-mentioned displays and resolutions, as well as smart and connected TVs. Samsung’s latest development involves the new technology NEO QLED, i.e. TVs with QLED screens and mini LED backlight.

Technological advancements like DTH and IPTV combined with the ever-changing content of the Indian television have had a positive impact on the television industry in the nation. The number of television households in the south Asian country stood at 226 million in 2022. Factoring in a possible rise in cord-cutting trends in the country over the years to come, TV households were expected to grow to 248 million by 2026.

More channels, more choice

With 900 channels to choose from, people are spoilt for choice with categories ranging from regional TV shows, to international shows and general entertainment categories and so on. The Hindi general entertainment category channel “Dangal” had over one billion weekly impressions in 2019. The Hindi-speaking market dominates the viewership of the television industry with over ten billion impressions in 2017.

Daily entertainment

With an average of almost four hours spent watching television every day, the television viewership has been on the rise. Despite the availability of cheap data and the rise of entertainment streams like Netflix and Hotstar, the dedication and comfort of having the evening Chai in front of the television seems irreplaceable.

Upfront TV ad spending in the United States amounted to 19.33 billion U.S. dollars in the 2022/2023 broadcast season. In the 2023/2024 broadcast season upfront spending is expected to decrease to 18.64 billion dollars.

Upfront TV

“Upfronts” are gatherings held by television networks and attended by major advertisers. They allow advertisers to buy television ad airtime before the next broadcasting season begins. In the 2021-22 season, U.S. national primetime TV upfront sales reached approximately 19.04 million U.S. dollars, making it the season with the highest upfront ad sales numbers over the last decade.

Ad time per hour of primetime TV

According to data surrounding the average ad time on U.S. broadcast networks, an average 17 minutes and 36 seconds of ad time per hour could be expected on ABC in the first quarter of 2019. FOX had the lowest ad time per primetime hour during that quarter, averaging at about 12 minutes and 38 seconds. On U.S. cable network groups however, Warner Media had the lowest average ad time per hour: roughly fourteen and a half minutes.

According to the most recently available data, 55.2 percent of surveyed non-satellite TV stations in the United States reported that they were showing profit in 2022, with 4.4 percent showing a loss. The percentages of respondents who said their newsrooms were profitable in 2021 and 2022 were the lowest recorded since before 2015.

According to the most recent data, U.S. viewers aged 15 years and older spent on average almost three hours watching TV per day in 2023. Adults aged 65 and above spent the most time watching television at over four hours, whilst 15 to 19-year-olds watched TV for less than two hours each day. The dynamic TV landscape The way people consume video entertainment platforms has significantly changed in the past decade, with a forecast suggesting that the time spent watching traditional TV in the U.S. will probably decline in the years ahead, while digital video will gain in popularity. Younger age groups in particular tend to cut the cord and subscribe to video streaming services, such as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video. TV advertising in a transition period Similarly, the TV advertising market made a development away from traditional linear TV towards online media. While the ad spending on traditional TV in the U.S. generally increased until the end of the 2010s, this value is projected to decline to below 60 billion U.S. dollars in the next few years. By contrast, investments in connected TV advertising are expected to steadily grow, despite the amount being just over half of the traditional TV ad spend by 2025.

The statistic shows the average size of LCD TV screens in the United States from 1997 to 2022. The average size of LCD TV screens in the United States more than doubled between 1998 and 2018, growing from 23 to 47 inches. This trend is expected to continue, with average LCD TV screen size expected to eclipse 50 inches by 2021.

According to the most recent data, 83 percent of consumers in the United States were using a subscription video-on-demand service in 2023, an increase of over 10 percentage points in five years. It is no secret that one of the most popular platforms (and certainly the one with the most U.S. subscribers) is Netflix. The number of Netflix streaming subscribers in the United States and Canada passed the 70 million mark for the first time in early 2020.

Netflix as the most used video streaming service in the U.S. To say Netflix has the monopoly on the U.S. streaming market would be an understatement, and with a wealth of original content appearing all the time, Netflix’s appeal is built to last. Data shows that Netflix has more viewers than Hulu and Amazon in the U.S., leaving services such as Disney+, Apple TV+, and ESPN+ trailing far behind. How to satisfy subscribers? However, the threat of new competitors could cause Netflix's subscriber base to dwindle if video consumers decide to go elsewhere. Upcoming services ranging from the long anticipated Disney+ to Warner Bros. Discovery's HBO Max and Discovery+ will likely draw some customers away from Netflix by virtue of what they can offer, and as new services enter the market, they will likely reclaim their own. Additionally, recent price increases in light of an upcoming recession led to losses in Netflix's subscriber numbers in the first half of 2022.

In 2023, the value of the media and entertainment market reached 2.83 trillion U.S. dollars, experiencing a growth of five percent compared to 2022. In the following years the growth is set to slow down, but dollar figures are expected reach 3.4 trillion by the end of 2028. Entertainment and media market revenue – additional informationThe entertainment and media market encompasses every broadcasting medium from newspapers, magazines, TV and radio and popular forms of entertainment such as film, music and books.The compound annual growth rate of the entertainment and media spending worldwide has been predicted between 2022 and 2026, by sector. Projections indicated that the sector which will see the most compound annual growth rate will be data consumption, at 26 percent, followed by virtual reality, which will grow by 24 percent during the stated time. In comparison, newspapers and magazines publishing is expected to shrink on an annual basis by two percent in the same period.

Regardless of the provider they use, U.S. consumers stream all types of genres. How has the popularity of reality tv as online video content genre in the U.S. changed over the past years? Looking at the most recent data points there has been an increase from 2022 Q4 to 2023 Q4. The share of respondents grew from 29 percent to 31 percent during this time. This is a stable trend since 2019. While reality TV watchers were showing this development in the recent past, many other genres had peaks and valleys in popularity, possibly due to a constant stream of new hit shows being hyped among viewers. Amidst streaming wars and password sharing breakdowns, many suppliers are expanding their catalogues to garner even bigger audiences. To see what type of content Netflix and their rivals should invest into next, we gathered the overview of the preferred digital video content by genre in the U.S. benchmarking reality TV watchers among other genres. The survey was conducted online among 3675 to 8858 respondents per quarter in the United States, between 2019 and 2023. Statista Consumer Insights offer you all results of our exclusive Statista surveys, based on more than 2,000,000 interviews.

The source forecast that, by the end of 2022, the annual revenue of the global film production and distribution industry would amount to 76.7 billion U.S. dollars. As of mid-2022, the sector employed almost 389 thousand people in a little more than 57 thousand businesses worldwide. China, the North American market (a term that includes the United States and Canada and excludes Mexico), and Japan were the world's leading box office markets by revenue in 2021.

The most recent data reveals that YouTube TV leads the global virtual multichannel video programming distributor (vMVPD) sector with a 44 percent market share, significantly surpassing Hulu + Live TV, which holds 27 percent. Other major platforms in the top five include Sling TV, which has a 12 percent share, followed by Fubo and other smaller services, each with nine percent. vMVPDs transform TV viewing habits vMVPDs are online services that provide live and on-demand TV channels over the internet, similar to traditional cable or satellite TV. The key difference lies in their flexibility, multi-device accessibility, and often lower costs. These advantages have significantly changed how consumers access television, leading to a sharp decline in traditional pay TV revenue, which dropped from 186 billion U.S. dollars in 2019 to 151 billion in 2022. Virtual pay TV v/s Pay TV Virtual pay TV services have rapidly expanded in the U.S., reflecting the overall global shift towards online entertainment. From 2016 to 2024, traditional multichannel video providers saw a significant drop in subscribers, declining from 99.2 million to an estimated 55.3 million. In contrast, virtual pay TV platforms grew exponentially, jumping from one million to over 17 million subscribers during the same period. This shift illustrates the growing demand for more versatile and accessible TV solutions, as viewers continue to turn away from traditional cable services in favor of more flexible streaming options.