Linear TV Holds Onto 86% Share of Ad Impressions Amid Growing Streaming Landscape

Streaming ad impressions have seen a significant increase, growing by 44% in the first half of 2025. However, when compared to traditional linear TV, streaming still holds a modest 16% share of total TV/streaming ad impressions, while linear TV dominates with an 86% share. On average, linear TV garners close to 17 billion ad impressions daily, according to iSpot.tv.

Linear TV’s ad spend has seen a 3.3% increase, reaching $21.9 billion in the first six months of the year. Prime time on linear TV also saw a boost of 13% to $4.2 billion, driven by sports and news programming. Major sports events like NCAA’s “March Madness” and the NBA playoffs and championship contributed to a 15.5% and 16% increase in TV ad impressions, respectively.

Among the top TV networks for ad impressions in the first half of 2025, CBS led the pack with an 8.1% share, followed by Fox News Channel, ABC, NBC, and ESPN. CBS, ABC, NBC, and ESPN all saw growth ranging from 2% to 6%. Notably, Fox News Channel saw a significant 35.1% increase, while CNN grew by 16%.

The top brands for streaming platforms in the first half of 2025 were Progressive, Allstate, and Hyundai, each claiming a significant share of voice in TV ad impressions. Burger King led the quick-service restaurant category with a 17.2% share of voice in linear TV, while Hyundai dominated with an 11.2% share of voice in the streaming platform automotive category.

In terms of pharmaceutical brands, Wegovy and Skyrizi were the leaders for linear TV and streaming TV, respectively. Additionally, Febreze emerged as the top brand for consumer packaged goods in both linear TV and streaming TV.

Overall, TV networks reduced their promotion and advertising impressions slightly in the first half of 2025, resulting in a 5.4% decrease in the share of voice.