TV Keeps Losing Ground

Just 59 percent of people surveyed by Statista Consumer Insights in the United States in 2024 had watched linear television in the last twelve months. In contrast, 86 percent said they had watched digital videos during the same time period.

The decline of classic TV continues. Five years ago, 79 percent of survey participants had still said that they watched broadcast, cable or satellite television. This was already fewer than digital video watcher, but only slightly at that time. Three years ago, during the coronavirus pandemic, the decline of linear TV watching in the United States accelerated when use dropped to 70 percent, down 6 percentage points from 2020. It dropped again by 5 percentage points in 2022 to 65 percent.

However, in the last six years, video streaming and downloading platforms have also ceased to win a significant amount of new customers. While the number of platforms a single user or household has access to might still be rising, the industry has apparently reached all potential new customers that have not used streaming or other online video formats before.