Streaming Hits Another High in April, Cable and Broadcast Rise Too

Streaming continued its upward trajectory in April, but linear TV platforms also saw an increase in their share of viewing time.

Nielsen’s monthly Gauge report shows streaming taking up 44.3 percent of all TV use in the United States, up from 43.8 percent in March. The April period (which ran from March 31-April 27 in Nielsen’s books) is the third straight month in which streaming platforms set a new high in share of TV use.

Streamers did not steal viewing time from cable or broadcast outlets, however, as both improved a little on their March numbers. Cable accounted for 24.5 percent of all TV use in April (vs. 24 percent in March), and broadcast networks had 20.8 percent (up from 20.5 percent a month earlier). Other TV usage (including gaming and physical media viewing) fell from 11.7 percent in March to 10.3 percent in April.

The NFL draft and the opening rounds of the NBA and NHL playoffs helped lift cable’s share of viewing for the month, while CBS’ broadcast of the NCAA men’s basketball championship had the largest network audience with 18.3 million viewers.

Grey’s Anatomy was the most streamed title of the month with 3.9 billion minutes of viewing on Hulu and Netflix. The ABC show’s 21st season, which is exclusive to Hulu at the moment, accounted for about 10 percent of that total despite having just 15 episodes of the 445-episode Grey’s library by the end of April. About 60 percent of the total time for the show (roughly 2.34 billion minutes) came from Netflix, with the remaining 30 percent (about 1.17 billion minutes) from past seasons on Hulu. (The streaming total for Grey’s Anatomy doesn’t include on-air viewing on ABC.)

The White Lotus finished a close second among streaming series with 3.7 billion viewing minutes on Max in April (again, not including on-air viewing on HBO).

YouTube remained the biggest individual streaming platform for TV users, capturing a new high of 12.4 percent of all TV use (up from 12 percent in March). The Roku Channel also hit a high of 2.4 percent and has grown by 21 percent since November 2024, when it began offering Max and other streamers through the channel.

Nielsen’s Gauge figures for April are below.