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You thought "I'll cut the cord, save some money and not need to watch commercials." right? Well you might be surprised once you do the math about streaming services. You (like me) have them all, weather you watch for work, or entertainment in the school pick up line. You're using the services. But one of the reasons you thought you were leaving broadcast television was to get away from commercials right? What if I told you that your streaming services play more commercials then broadcast tv.
Most streamers rely on ad-supported income. Nielsen revealed that in the first quarter of 2025, 72.4% of TV viewing in the U.S. was on ad-supported platforms. So you thought again about what you were paying for. So why not watch broadcast tv right?
Streaming leads with the most commercialas, followed by cable and broadcast networks.
Streaming makes up 42.4% of ad-supported TV use, translating to 30.7% of total TV consumption.
Oh, and you think "I'm using a friends info, so I don't really see commercials." Well, if you share, about 70% of streaming content includes commercials. So you are seeing them even though you're using someone else's info.
Cable and broadcast networks had 28.9% and 28.7% ad-supported viewing, respectively, higher than their overall TV usage statistics.
So what do you do now? Go back to broadcast T.V. and dump your streaming services? I love all the options I have, so I'll keep them. Commercials don't bother me that much and in the end we really don't save a lot of $$$