TV is Dead? Long Live Converged TV!
For nearly a decade, and certainly since the explosive growth of streaming during and after the pandemic, a common refrain has been heard in the marketing community citing the death of linear TV. TV is dead, they say. To paraphrase Mark Twain, the reports of TV’s death are greatly exaggerated.
Like all exaggerations of demise, there is some truth to the story. In Nielsen’s December 2025 The Gauge report released in late January, streaming TV set new records for share of viewership and handily eclipsed linear TV viewing by nearly six percentage points (47.5% share for streaming vs. 41.6% for linear). While streaming TV has topped linear TV in previous The Gauge reports, it had been by a narrow margin. The past two reports show that gap widening quickly, with streaming besting linear by three percentage points in November and now 5.9 percentage points in December. This latest report has many pundits once again rallying around the “TV is dead!” refrain. I disagree.
First, while linear TV’s share of viewing has declined—and will likely continue to decline—41.6% share of viewing time is still a lot of viewing. The Nielsen report measures viewing in minutes, and that 41.6% share equates to just shy of one trillion minutes of time spent watching broadcast and cable TV. Declining, sure, but from a massive base that still has a long way to go before the patient can be declared dead.
Linear TV’s Role as a Viable Growth Platform
Second, the streaming viewership figure includes all viewing to streaming platforms, including viewing of non-ad supported content and platforms. Over a quarter of all viewing isn’t ad-supported, and the non-ad supported space leans heavily towards streaming, along with what Nielsen calls “other viewing” like gaming, audio, DVDs, and other non-measured viewing. So, when you look only at ad supporting viewing, linear TV still dominates with a 56.4% share of viewing to streaming TV’s 45.6% share. When we are talking about the “death of TV,” we are looking at it through the lens of a successful advertising platform. Clearly linear TV remains viable there.
That argument doesn’t rest on viewership data alone. Ultimately, what matters to marketers is driving results, and TV in all forms consistently delivers results for our clients here at Rain. TV is the number one marketing channel for delivering reach quickly, and reaching more new prospects is the best way to deliver growth. TV drives greater attention to advertising than any other channel, and having a consumer’s attention is critical to getting your message heard and acted upon. All that adds up to results. Whether using Rain’s proprietary outcomes measurement tool Signal Link™ or third-party outcomes measurement partners like iSpot, TV is a consistently proven results driver.
All this isn’t to say that there isn’t a role for streaming TV in a Transactional Brand Building campaign. On the contrary, we have adopted an approach of Converged TV. Streaming is a significant contributor to business outcomes for our clients, and the share of streaming as a part of the media mix is increasing every year. There are several reasons for that shift. First, as we stated above, the growth of streaming TV audiences is hard to ignore. We need to be advertising where our target audience is spending time. Second, streaming platforms are shifting to be more ad supported. Netflix, HBO, Amazon Prime, and others are pushing their viewers to their ad supported models.
Finally, the safe space that linear TV held for years is being encroached on by streaming platforms. That safe space? Live TV. For years, that was the trump card that broadcast and cable held. Want to watch the game live? You need linear TV. Want breaking news? Linear TV. Major tentpole events? Linear TV. Not so, anymore. One of the reasons that streaming numbers jumped in December was Christmas Day. Amazon Prime Video had a live NFL game. Netflix had two live games, and followed that with the release of the final episodes of the hit series “Stranger Things.” Those two platforms alone accounted for 22.5% of all TV viewing on Christmas Day, with all streaming platforms grabbing 54% of viewing—the highest streaming share ever!
Why a Converged TV Approach is Critical
This is a trend that will only increase. Streaming platforms are placing winning bids for more sports rights every year: NFL on Netflix, NFL on Amazon and Peacock, the MLB on AppleTV, and NWSL on Paramount +, just to name a few. In an even bigger shock to the status quo, YouTube recently won the rights to the Academy Awards starting in 2029.
So, TV is not dead, but it is certainly evolving. Driving business outcomes will require a converged TV approach—an intelligent combination of both linear and streaming TV, with the right mix dependent on a brand’s audience, KPIs, and budget. And it is never a “set it and forget it” approach here at Rain. Our teams are constantly monitoring the marketplace to find the best deals in both linear and streaming, while closely tracking outcomes to deliver superior results. So is TV really dead? Long live TV!
This article is featured in Media Impact Report No. 72. View the full report here.
