TV advertising is changing as audiences split their time between broadcast channels, broadcaster video-on-demand and streaming services. In the UK, commercial TV and online revenue reached £17.07 billion in 2024, while connected-TV advertising reached £1.45 billion. U.S. data also shows that ad-supported viewing remains substantial: it represented 74.2% of television viewing in the fourth quarter of 2025. These figures come from Ofcom and Nielsen, with different geographies and measurement periods.
Contents
- UK commercial TV and online revenue
- The shift toward connected and broadcaster video
- UK viewing levels and advertising reach
- Age differences in UK video viewing
- U.S. ad-supported television and streaming
- Marketer budgets and measurement
UK commercial TV and online revenue
Ofcom’s Media Nations 2025 - UK Report presents nominal UK commercial TV and online sector revenue for 2019 through 2024. The figures include restatements, so they should be read as reported revenue for each year rather than as inflation-adjusted values.
| UK revenue category | 2019 | 2021 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Platform operators | £6.28bn | £6.54bn | £6.23bn | £5.99bn |
| Digital multichannels | £2.35bn | £2.40bn | £2.03bn | £1.96bn |
| Commercial public-service broadcasters | £2.21bn | £2.39bn | £1.94bn | £1.96bn |
| Broadcaster video-on-demand | £0.46bn | £0.68bn | £0.92bn | £1.06bn |
| Subscription video-on-demand | £1.66bn | £2.68bn | £3.96bn | £4.37bn |
| Digital transactional video | £0.33bn | £0.29bn | £0.29bn | £0.29bn |
| Total commercial TV and online | £14.40bn | £17.30bn | £16.53bn | £17.07bn |
The complete annual series shows platform-operator revenue at £6.28 billion in 2019, £6.22 billion in 2020, £6.54 billion in 2021, £6.47 billion in 2022, £6.23 billion in 2023 and £5.99 billion in 2024. Digital multichannel revenue was £2.35 billion, £2.07 billion, £2.40 billion, £2.26 billion, £2.03 billion and £1.96 billion across the same years.
Commercial public-service broadcasters generated £2.21 billion in 2019, £1.95 billion in 2020, £2.39 billion in 2021, £2.29 billion in 2022, £1.94 billion in 2023 and £1.96 billion in 2024. The overall UK total was £14.40 billion in 2019, £14.52 billion in 2020, £17.30 billion in 2021, £16.34 billion in 2022, £16.53 billion in 2023 and £17.07 billion in 2024.
Source: Ofcom, Media Nations 2025 - UK Report. Ofcom’s figures are nominal and include restatements.
The shift toward connected and broadcaster video
The latest UK revenue mix points toward online video and connected screens. Total commercial TV and online sector revenue reached £17.1 billion in 2024, up 3.3% from £16.5 billion in 2023. Commercial public-service-broadcaster revenue, largely driven by linear TV advertising, stabilised at about £2 billion in 2024, while digital-multichannel revenue fell 3.2% year on year to about £2 billion.
Broadcaster video-on-demand revenue rose from £460 million in 2019 to £500 million in 2020, £680 million in 2021, £810 million in 2022, £920 million in 2023 and £1.06 billion in 2024. That was a 15% year-on-year increase in 2024, and broadcaster video-on-demand advertising revenue exceeded £1 billion for the first time. Broadcaster video-on-demand accounted for 25% of UK commercial broadcasters’ advertising revenue in 2024.
Subscription video-on-demand revenue increased from £1.66 billion in 2019 to £2.11 billion in 2020, £2.68 billion in 2021, £3.26 billion in 2022, £3.96 billion in 2023 and £4.37 billion in 2024. It reached £4.4 billion in 2024, up 10% year on year. Digital transactional video revenue was £330 million in 2019, £390 million in 2020, £290 million in 2021, £280 million in 2022, £290 million in 2023 and £290 million in 2024.
Ofcom reports connected-TV advertising separately from traditional linear advertising. The series begins in 2022, when UK connected-TV advertising revenue was £960 million. It rose to £1.16 billion in 2023 and £1.45 billion in 2024, a 25% year-on-year increase in 2024. Online sectors—subscription video-on-demand, broadcaster video-on-demand, connected-TV advertising and transactional online video—accounted for 42% of UK sector revenue in 2024, compared with 33% in 2022.
Source: Ofcom, Media Nations 2025 - UK Report.
UK viewing levels and advertising reach
UK viewing remains large, but the available reach differs by platform and age. Ofcom’s Barb-measured UK figures show that people aged 4 and over watched an average of 4 hours 30 minutes of in-home video per day in 2024. The TV set delivered 84% of that in-home video viewing.
People aged 4 and over spent an average of 2 hours 24 minutes per day watching broadcast TV on TV sets. Average broadcast-TV viewing on TV sets was 4% lower in 2024 than in 2023. An average 73.8% of UK individuals watched broadcast TV on a TV set each week in 2024, down 1.7 percentage points year on year.
Weekly broadcast-TV reach was 94% among people aged 65 and over, compared with 45% among people aged 16–24. Broadcaster content represented 56% of UK Barb-measured in-home video viewing in 2024, down from 57% in 2023. Broadcaster video-on-demand viewing averaged 25 minutes per person per day, versus 23 minutes for recorded playback of live channels.
The 16–24 age group watched an average of 3 hours 19 minutes of in-home video per day in 2024, four minutes less than in 2023. These measures describe UK viewing and should not be treated as U.S. audience estimates or as a direct measure of advertising impressions.
Source: Ofcom, Media Nations 2025 - UK Report. Viewing figures use Barb data.
Age differences in UK video viewing
The role of broadcaster content varies sharply by age. In 2024, broadcaster content accounted for 22% of in-home video viewing among UK children aged 4–15 and 19% among 16–24-year-olds. The share rose to 27% among people aged 25–34, 40% among those aged 35–44 and 59% among those aged 45–54.
For older audiences, broadcaster content represented 71% of in-home video viewing among people aged 55–64, 82% among people aged 65–74 and 90% among people aged 75 and over. The pattern indicates why a TV plan aimed at broad reach may need different combinations of linear, broadcaster video-on-demand and other video environments for different age groups.
People aged 35–44 spent an average of 52 minutes per day watching video-sharing platforms in 2024, six minutes more than in 2023. People aged 75 and over watched an average of 6 hours 26 minutes of in-home video per day, up 13 minutes year on year. Within that older group, broadcaster video-on-demand viewing rose from 12 to 20 minutes per day between 2023 and 2024, a 67% increase.
Source: Ofcom, Media Nations 2025 - UK Report.
U.S. ad-supported television and streaming
Nielsen’s U.S. measures use different periods from the UK figures. In the fourth quarter of 2025, ad-supported television represented 74.2% of U.S. TV viewing, the highest share Nielsen recorded during 2025. U.S. ad-supported TV viewing rose 9% from the third quarter to the fourth quarter.
Within U.S. ad-supported TV viewing in Q4 2025, streaming represented 45.6%, broadcast 29.6% and cable 24.8%.
| U.S. ad-supported TV viewing, Q4 2025 | Share |
|---|---|
| Streaming | 45.6% |
| Broadcast | 29.6% |
| Cable | 24.8% |
Ad-supported broadcast viewing increased 22% from Q3 to Q4 2025 and added 3.2 share points. Sports viewing’s share of ad-supported broadcast viewing rose 135% over the same period to reach 34%. Ad-supported broadcast viewing rose 41% among 25–34-year-olds, 31% among adults aged 18–49 and 29% among adults aged 25–54.
Nielsen also reported that streaming represented 43.8% of overall U.S. TV time in March 2025, up 10 percentage points in two years. This overall-TV-time figure and the Q4 ad-supported-TV shares use different Nielsen measures and dates, so they are not interchangeable.
Source: Nielsen, “Football And Younger Viewers Drive Ad Supported TV Viewing To 2025 High”; Nielsen, “Connected TV is transforming advertising”.
Marketer budgets and measurement
Nielsen reported that 56% of global marketers planned to increase OTT/CTV spending in 2025, compared with 53% in 2024. This is a survey measure of planned spending, not realized expenditure. Nielsen’s cited Ad Supported Gauge also reported that 72.4% of U.S. television time was ad-supported.
Measurement remains fragmented. Only 32% of global marketers reported measuring media spending holistically across digital and traditional channels in Nielsen’s 2025 survey. The Nielsen CTV ad-spend dataset covered 20 platforms representing 95% of the U.S. CTV ad market in Q1 2025; that 95% describes dataset coverage, not ad spend.
In Nielsen’s 2024 global marketer survey, 72% expected bigger advertising budgets, up from 64% in 2023. About two-thirds of global media budgets were planned for digital channels. Only 38% of global marketers said they evaluated holistic ROI by measuring traditional and digital marketing together.
Nielsen’s campaign analysis found that only 36% of media channels performed above average for both sales and awareness success globally, and only 20% did so in the U.S. Campaigns putting more than 85% of budget into one media bucket reached at most 17% of their target audience in the analysis. Well-diversified campaigns reached 90% of their target audience across CTV, desktop and mobile screens.
These results support a practical distinction between audience delivery and measurement: a campaign can use television, streaming and digital video together, but performance comparisons depend on the geography, period, platform coverage and definitions used by the measurement source.
Sources: Nielsen, “Connected TV is transforming advertising”; Nielsen, 2024 Annual Marketing Report; Nielsen, “Why do we need cross-media measurement?”.