Streaming simply handed a significant milestone: in Might 2025, it formally overtook cable and broadcast mixed. It is the type of second that ought to really feel like a victory lap for cord-cutters. And but, as somebody who ditched cable years in the past, I’ve began feeling one thing I did not anticipate—I type of miss it.
Streaming Has Formally Overtaken Cable and Broadcast TV in Viewership
We have lastly reached the tipping level. For the primary time in tv historical past, streaming has formally surpassed conventional TV viewing. In keeping with Nielsen’s report, streaming now accounts for 44.8% of complete TV viewership as of Might 2025, whereas broadcast and cable mixed solely make up 44.2%. It is a slim margin, however it’s a historic one.
Nielsen
Nonetheless, I really feel somewhat conflicted. That is what we have all been predicting for years, proper? The inevitable demise of cable, the rise of on-demand every thing, and the longer term the place we’re in full management of what we watch and after we watch it. Streaming utilization has exploded by 71% since 2021, whereas cable viewing has dropped by 39%. The numbers do not lie—we have collectively voted with our distant controls and our wallets.
Netflix continues to dominate the streaming panorama, sustaining its place as the highest streaming service for 4 straight years. The platform even managed to interrupt streaming information with its unique NFL video games on Christmas Day 2024. In the meantime, YouTube has grow to be an absolute juggernaut, representing 12.5% of all tv viewing in Might.
In different phrases, the period of flipping by channels is formally being drowned out by algorithms, on-demand menus, and autoplay previews. And actually, that is a formidable milestone. However whereas everybody else is toasting the top of cable, I’ve discovered myself wanting it again.
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If I may return in time, I might have minimize cable sooner.
Not as a result of I believe cable was higher, however as a result of streaming—satirically—has began to really feel like extra work.
The Fragmentation of Streaming Has Turned Alternative right into a Chore
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Keep in mind when Netflix was simply Netflix? When you can fairly anticipate that the majority exhibits and films would finally find yourself there? These days really feel like a distant reminiscence. Immediately’s streaming terrain has fractured into what looks like dozens of various companies, with each making an attempt to carve out its personal piece of the leisure pie.
The Nielsen report mentions that the listing of streaming platforms with important viewership has expanded from 5 companies in 2021 to eleven in 2025. That is greater than doubled in simply 4 years. Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, Prime Video, Disney+, Paramount+, Peacock, Max, Apple TV+, and the rising listing of free ad-supported companies like Pluto TV, Roku Channel, and Tubi. To me, that’s overwhelming. That is eleven apps, eleven interfaces, eleven subscriptions—and, in principle, eleven completely different exhibits you are half-watching without delay.
What was imagined to simplify our viewing expertise has grow to be a posh puzzle. I discover myself spending extra time deciding what to observe than really watching. First, I’ve to recollect which service has which present. Then I’ve to determine if I am nonetheless subscribed to that service. Then I’ve to resolve if it is value subscribing to one more platform for only one present I need to watch.
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The “Netflix Impact” talked about within the report—the place exhibits grow to be greater hits after shifting to Netflix—completely illustrates this chaos. Reveals like Fits and Younger Sheldon discovered new audiences on Netflix regardless that they initially aired elsewhere. However as a viewer, this simply provides one other layer of confusion. The place did this present initially come from? The place can I watch it subsequent month? Will it nonetheless be there?
Free Streaming Companies Are Rising Quick—However They Really feel a Lot Like Cable
Here is the place issues get actually ironic: the free ad-supported streaming companies (FAST) are booming. Pluto TV, Roku Channel, and Tubi mixed characterize 5.7% of complete TV viewing—greater than any particular person broadcast community. These companies are rising as a result of they’re free, however they’re additionally rising as a result of they provide one thing that feels acquainted: the power to simply activate the TV and have one thing taking part in.
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FAST streaming companies have grow to be fairly in style, and now I can see why.
However for my part, these companies are simply cable TV with further steps. You are still watching advertisements, you are still restricted to what’s being programmed for you, and you are still coping with content material that cycles out and in based mostly on licensing agreements. The primary distinction is that you just entry it by an app as a substitute of a cable field.
I’ve caught myself utilizing these companies increasingly more currently, and it isn’t as a result of the content material is essentially higher. Typically, I simply need to activate the TV and have one thing taking part in with out having to decide.
Reside Occasions and Sports activities Nonetheless Really feel Higher on Cable
Picture Credit score: Sling TV
Regardless of all of the advances in streaming know-how, there’s nonetheless one thing that conventional TV does higher: stay occasions. By the way in which, streaming companies are stepping into stay sports activities—Netflix’s NFL video games and NBC’s Olympics streaming on Peacock are good examples—however the expertise nonetheless feels completely different.
There is a communal facet to watching stay TV that streaming hasn’t fairly captured. When everybody in your neighborhood is watching the identical soccer (please do not name it soccer) recreation on the identical time, when you’ll be able to textual content your mates a couple of industrial in the course of the Tremendous Bowl figuring out they simply noticed it too, when you’ll be able to take part in real-time social media conversations a couple of stay occasion—that is one thing that will get misplaced when everyone seems to be watching throughout completely different platforms and should battle with lag and buffering points. And typically, the entire app may crash underneath strain.
Streaming has additionally made us impatient. We’re so used to binge-watching complete seasons that ready per week between episodes feels archaic. However there was one thing to be mentioned for appointment tv, for having to attend, for the anticipation and the shared cultural moments that got here with everybody watching the identical factor on the identical time.
I Nonetheless Need Cable TV Again
I do know this may sound loopy, particularly from somebody who minimize the wire years in the past, however I am beginning to miss cable. It’s not the overpriced bundles, the horrible customer support, and the countless channels of infomercials, however the simplicity of it.
With cable, you turned on the TV and flipped by channels till you discovered one thing to observe. You did not have to recollect passwords, fear about whether or not your web connection was quick sufficient, handle a number of subscriptions, or analysis which platform had the present you wished to observe.
The Nielsen report means that streaming’s dominance over conventional TV may be short-term, shifting forwards and backwards relying on the season and what’s out there. A part of me hopes that is true. Not as a result of I need streaming to fail, however as a result of I believe there’s room for each fashions to coexist.
Perhaps the way forward for tv is not about one format fully changing one other. Perhaps it is about discovering the correct stability between selection and ease, between management and comfort, between the longer term and the acquainted consolation of simply turning on the TV and letting another person resolve what you are going to watch tonight.
Till then, I will be over right here scrolling by six apps, making an attempt to recollect the place I left off on that one present. You understand the one. It had a man. Or perhaps a canine. By no means thoughts.
