Estimates suggest that in 2024 U.S. adults will spend an average of nearly three hours watching traditional TV each day. This figure has generally fallen in recent years and the downward trend is forecast to continue in the years to come. The only exception to this trend is the year 2020, when consumption increased due to a growth in media consumption during the coronavirus outbreak. Screen time Although average daily time spent watching TV appears to be decreasing, this does not necessarily mean that people are spending less time in front of screens; this drop is likely due to an increasing amount of time spent with phones, tablets, and laptops. With on-demand streaming services such as Netflix gaining massive popularity, people can watch a huge range of programming whilst on the go, meaning that screen time is no longer limited to time spent at home in front of the TV. Young people around the world have been especially quick to adopt smartphone-based video streaming habits meaning that television screen time will likely fall even further in the future. Television in the U.S. As mentioned above, the way people are consuming their video entertainment content is rapidly changing in the United States. By 2027, estimates suggest that only 47.8 million U.S. households will pay for traditional TV services, down from over 100 million as of 2014. In order to compete for people’s business, cable and satellite providers must find a way to adapt in a way the meets the needs of today’s increasingly mobile consumers. Some are launching their own streaming services in a bid to tackle cord-cutting, most notably Comcast.

The global number of TV viewers in the 'TV Viewers' segment of the media market was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2029 by in total 0.2 billion users (+3.8 percent). After the ninth consecutive increasing year, the indicator is estimated to reach 5.5 billion users and therefore a new peak in 2029. Notably, the number of TV viewers of the 'TV Viewers' segment of the media market was continuously increasing over the past years.Find more information concerning Benelux and Russia. The Statista Market Insights cover a broad range of additional markets.

According to a 2024 survey, the majority of U.S. viewers used a combination of both traditional TV and video streaming services, with 64 percent of respondents subscribing to those platforms. A further one in three people interviewed stated that they only used streaming services, while four percent only viewed content on traditional TV sources, such as pay TV and over-the-air TV.

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 2025 edition of the Super Bowl, which saw the Philadelphia Eagles emerge victorious against the Kansas City Chiefs was watched by 127.7 million viewers in the United States, making it not only the most watched Super Bowl in history, but also the most popular TV program of all time in the U.S. The second most watched Super Bowl was aired in the previous year, when the Kansas City Chiefs won against the San Francisco 49ers. What is the Super Bowl? The Super Bowl is the last game of the NFL season with the winners of the two football conferences, the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC), competing with each other. The game determines the champion of the National Football League. The first Super Bowl was played on January 15, 1967, following the 1966 football season. In that game, the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League defeated the Kansas City Chiefs, then of the American Football League, with a score of 35 to 10, winning the first-ever Super Bowl championship. Super Bowl giants The Super Bowl came into being as part of a merger agreement between the two rival football leagues (National Football League and the American Football League) at the time. From 1967 to 1970, the game pitted the champions of the two rival leagues against each other. Since 1971 and the completion of the merger agreement, the winners of the two conferences have squared off against each other. The Pittsburgh Steelers and the New England Patriots have won the most Super Bowl titles, with a total of six each. The Patriots have also appeared in the National Football League’s annual championship game a record 11 times, thereby topping the list for Super Bowl appearances.

In 2023, TV consumption in the United States was highest among African Americans, who watched an average of 3.28 hours of TV each day. While the viewing time dropped among white, Black, and Hispanic consumers, Asian Americans’ time spent grew from 2021 to 2022 to around two hours per day. TV and streaming engagement among racial groups As of mid 2022, The U.S. population still spent most of their time watching TV and streaming content on traditional media, such as cable and broadcast. Roughly 35 percent of their viewing time was allocated to streaming. It was also observed that Hispanics were more likely to use online video platforms than any other ethnic group, with a viewing time share of over 43 percent. By contrast, using streaming services accounted for around one third of the total viewing time among white and Asian consumers. Traditional TV vs. digital video The way consumers watch TV shows and movies has changed significantly. A forecast showed that traditional TV consumption among Americans will continue to steadily decline in the upcoming years. Meanwhile, with an increasing number of consumers adopting streaming and social videos, digital video soars, outpacing TV viewing time by the end of 2023.

As of February 2025, streaming was the favorite platform for television and video users in the United States, reaching a 43.5 percent share of the overall viewing time. This marks a growth compared with the previous month, while broadcast and cable TV decreased its viewership.

According to estimates, there were 125 million TV homes in the United States for the 2023-2024 TV season. Whilst the number of TV households continues to grow, pay TV is becoming less popular – the pay TV penetration rate in the U.S. was pegged at 64 percent in 2023, marking a drop of over 10 percentage points in just five years. The changing TV landscape The trend of consumers (especially younger generations) cutting the cord and instead moving online to streaming services has meant that many pay TV providers have struggled to keep afloat. In spite of this, television statistics show that watching terrestrial TV is still a popular media activity among U.S. consumers. Television has been a popular pastime for so long that it seems impossible the medium could ever die out – but its traditional form is certainly changing. The advent of 3D and smart TV technology, as well as connected TV devices, mean that the ways in which we watch television are changing all the time. User demographics A key factor when considering television consumption in the United States is how a consumer’s age affects their viewing habits and preferences. As of 2022, the average daily time spent watching TV among adults aged 75 years and older amounted to nearly five hours. 20 to 24-year-olds spent just around two hours per day consuming TV content. Moreover, the share of cable TV subscribers was higher among older adults, with half of consumers aged 65 years and older subscribing to a cable TV service, compared to 34 percent of 18 to 34-year-olds at the beginning of 2023.

Television viewership in India measured an average minute audience (AMA) of approximately 1.5 trillion in 2023. It indicated a slight recovery from the declining trend that emerged post-pandemic, although remaining below viewership levels recorded in 2020. Despite the dip in viewership, television continued to be the country's largest medium, reaching over 200 million households. What is India watching? Of the one to two hours spent per day watching television, most Indians either sought entertainment in the form of their favorite TV series, or sports or tuned into the news of the day. The entertainment genre’s dominance within television consumption was quite evident in the abundance of general entertainment channels available to viewers in nearly all the major Indian vernacular languages. Comedies were a popular genre. Meanwhile, sports drew its viewers primarily from the vast population of cricket enthusiasts in the country, with Star Sports 1 Hindi being the most-watched television channel overall. The era of connected TV The Indian media and entertainment sector has been at the forefront of the digital revolution, being the first to adopt or adapt to innovative technologies. The television sector was no exception. With the irrevocable penetration of streaming and over-the-top services in the video content segment, an increasing number of Indian households are switching to connected televisions. Hybrid viewing has become the norm with viewers able to stream the latest web series and consume live television on the same device.

The NFL is one of the most widely televised sporting leagues in the world. The average television viewership of a regular season NFL game in 2024 was calculated to be 17.5 million. Attendance In addition to this record-breaking TV viewership, the NFL attracts thousands of fans to the stadiums each week to see their favorite teams in action. The NFL has consistently been the major American sports league with the highest average attendance, with an average of almost 70 thousand people attending each game in the 2023 season. Moreover, during the 2024 regular season, the average total home attendance per team across the entire NFL was calculated to be 588,088. The franchise with the highest total attendance for its eight regular-season home games was the Dallas Cowboys, perhaps in part to their comparatively reasonably priced tickets, costing nearly 117 U.S. dollars on average, just less than the average ticket price across the NFL at 120 U.S. dollars per ticket. Best players Since 1957, the Associated Press NFL Most Valuable Player Award has been given to the NFL player considered to have been the most outstanding during the season. Since the award's introduction, Peyton Manning has received the award the greatest number of times during his career, closely followed by Aaron Rodgers, who has received the award on four occasions. One other potential indicator of the success of an NFL player is their annual salary. The highest-paid NFL player in 2024 was Dak Prescott, quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys, who earned 86.3 million U.S. dollars from salary and bonuses and 14 million U.S. dollars from endorsement deals during the 2024 season.

In 2025, around 19.7 million Americans watched the Academy Awards ceremony. Oscars viewership fluctuates year by year, however, the last time the ceremony drew in a U.S. audience of more than 40 million was back in 2014. The figure recorded in 2021 was the lowest yet, and marked a drop-off of over 50 percent from the 2020 audience. Coverage of the Academy Awards Viewership of awards ceremonies can depend on multiple factors, ranging from personal preferences to overall interest in nominees, as well as how much coverage is devoted to the ceremony before and during its broadcast. Interest in upcoming events in the media industry is often generated via social media, which can be extremely effective in generating discussions, interactions, and general awareness. In 2018, the Academy Awards were mentioned 2.5 million times on social media during the ceremony, and have also proved to be some of the most popular TV specials on Twitter in recent years. Conversely, a survey held in early 2019 revealed that 19 percent of U.S. adults had not come across any news coverage for the 2019 Academy Awards at all.

In 2024, Super Bowl LVII between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers achieved a TV rating of 42.1, up from the all-time low of 36.9 two years prior. In total, the number of Super Bowl viewers exceeded a record 123 million in 2024.

A survey conducted in the United States in 2023 revealed that most CTV viewers were between the ages of 18 and 34 years, with nearly two thirds of respondents using these devices on a daily basis. Meanwhile, 27 percent of people aged over 55 years watched videos via connected TVs every day.

The games of the 2024 World Series, in which the Los Angeles Dodgers achieved a five-game series win over the New York Yankees, were watched by an average of 14.34 million viewers. This marked the Dodgers' eighth World Series title in franchise history.

Overall, women spent an average of almost two and half an hour per day watching television in 2023, down from 2.53 hours in 2022. Men watched more TV on average than women, decreasing their average daily viewing time slightly to 3.06 hours in 2022.

How many Italians watch TV? From 2006 to 2023, the number of individuals watching television in Italy fluctuated. According to the data, the number of TV viewers amounted to approximately 53.4 million in 2006. Subsequently, this figure dropped to roughly 50.75 million viewers in 2023. However, the peak of Italian TV viewers was reached in 2010 and 2011, at over 54.5 million. The Italian TV audience is not particularly young When looking at the profile of TV viewers in Italy, data revealed that the television’s audience was not particularly young. In fact, most individuals watching TV in Italy were aged between 45 and 54 as of 2021. On the other hand, people aged between 18 and 19 represented the smallest group. Furthermore, when considering the occupational status of Italian TV consumers, data showed that retired people, as well as middle management and white-collar employees represented the largest group that year. Most Italian TV watchers come from the North-West of Italy When breaking down Italian TV audience by macro-area of origin, it can be noticed that most viewers lived in the North-West in 2021. Specifically, the North-West region of Lombardy registered the highest number of individuals watching television in Italy. In fact, more than a half of viewers from the North-West came from this specific region. However, it is also worth remembering that Lombardy is by far the most populous region in the country.

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.

In 2023, the average time spent per individual watching broadcast television in the UK amounted to 158 minutes per day. Despite an initial short spike in viewing time in 2020, likely due to the onset of the global coronavirus pandemic, broadcast TV consumption declined each year since 2010. Older audiences tended to consume traditional TV more than their younger counterparts, with people aged 65 years and over watching TV more than five hours on a daily basis, compared to less than an hour among 16 to-24-year-olds. Internet-connected devices transform the TV market The television continues to be crucial to the UK’s media landscape, regardless of declining TV viewing time. The most recent data showed that the number of TV households in the region increased from 26.7 million in 2017 to more than 27 million in 2021, as smart TVs and connected TVs become the devices of choice. In 2022, the penetration rate of smart TV sets peaked in 2021 and 2022 at 67 percent. Alteration of consumer habits While traditional TV consumption has declined lately, online TV services provided by broadcasters have increased in popularity. The average daily viewing time of broadcaster video-on-demand (BVOD) in the UK doubled between 2018 and 2022. Additionally, online audiovisual revenues grew by nearly four billion British pounds during the same period, demonstrating the recent shift from linear TV towards online video alternatives.

“NFL Sunday Night Football” was the most watched TV show in the United States in the 2023/2024 season, with roughly 19.8 million viewers. “NFL Monday Night Football” ranked second with approximately 12 million viewers. NFL sports broadcasts score high with viewers Football matches and other live sports events have always attracted impressive audiences in the United States, and this popularity also extends to their television broadcasts. In 2023, the Super Bowl LVII was the top primetime telecast in the U.S., drawing nearly 115 million viewers to their screens. Furthermore, none of the 10 most successful primetime programs were not football-related, explaining why 30-second advertising slots during the Super Bowl cost an average of seven million U.S. dollars. Most popular TV networks NBC was the leading ad-supported television network in the United States, with an average viewership of around 4.54 million viewers in 2023. One of its most popular shows during the 2023/2024 season included “Chicago Fire,” a drama that has been on the air for many years. The only other network to surpass four million viewers in 2023 was CBS, which aired “NCIS” as one of its most successful fictional series.

As of July 2022, Hispanic Americans spent most of their TV and video viewing time watching content on streaming platforms, with a share of 43.6 percent reporting that they streamed rather than used broadcast or cable. The same applied to the Black and Asian U.S. population, while white people still tend to watch more often on cable TV.