Audience Erosion Accelerates Across Traditional TV

Building on UBS’ note to clients last month, which flagged an inflection point as streaming TV recently overtook traditional TV, a new report from Goldman, citing its very own Nielsen TV ratings tracker, shows a continued steep deterioration in broadcast and cable viewership in recent weeks. 

A team of Goldman analysts led by Michael Ng opened Monday’s note to clients with a disturbing statistic for the traditional TV industry: 

We refresh our Nielsen TV ratings tracker for our U.S. Media coverage (DIS, CMCSA, PARA, WBD, FOXA) that includes traditional ACM (average commercial minute) prime time and total day ratings across broadcast and cable. This edition focuses on the C3 cable and broadcast ratings through week ending July 27th, 2025 (14 day delay), and L3 cable ratings through week ending August 10th, 2025.

• Prime time commercial ratings for broadcast ex-sports were down 23% yoy in 3Q25-to-date (through week ending July 27th).

• Prime time commercial ratings decreased 39% for broadcast including sports and declined -30% for cable, in 3Q25-to-date (through week ending July 27th).

Some of the key takeaways from Ng’s note are that audience erosion is accelerating in both broadcast and cable compared with earlier in 2025, with even the stabilizing effect of sports unable to offset sharp primetime declines. FOX stands out as a notable exception, as strong growth at Fox News bucks the broader downturn in cable. 

In contrast, Comcast (CMCSA) is facing the most severe collapse in cable total day viewership, plunging 49% year-over-year. Overall, the weakness in viewership is broad-based across entertainment, news, and lifestyle genres.

CMCSA viewership declined the most QTD at -49% y/y C3Q25-to-date

Broadcast primetime ratings (including sports) by broadcast network

For the full report on the traditional TV viewership tracker, read the full report in the usual place. 

Ng’s report builds on the UBS note we cited in early July about the inflection point reached: “Streaming surpasses traditional TV in May.”

And perhaps the downturn in traditional TV is why mega broadcaster Sinclair, with 178 stations across 81 U.S. markets, announced earlier today a “strategic review of its broadcast business” aimed at “optimizing value creation across its portfolio.”