Television advertising remains a large global market, but its composition is changing. The statistics below distinguish industry estimates, company-reported revenue, viewing-time measures, surveys, forecasts and campaign analyses across global and U.S. populations.
Key Television Advertising Statistics
The most useful headline figures include:
- In 2024, global advertising revenue exceeded $1 trillion.
- In 2024, global TV ad spend increased 3.3%.
- In 2024, TV represented 16% of total global advertising spend.
- In 2024, digital advertising represented 71% of total global advertising spend.
- In 2024, pureplay digital advertising revenue reached $740 billion globally.
- In 2024, digital video advertising revenue reached $62.1 billion in the United States.
- In 2024, digital video advertising grew 19.2% in the United States.
- In 2024, TV advertising revenue grew 6.6% in the United States.
- In 2024, linear channels received three-quarters of global TV advertising spend.
- In 2024, streaming services received one-quarter of global TV advertising spend.
- In Q1 2025, ad-supported platforms accounted for 72.4% of U.S. television viewing.
- In Q1 2025, broadcast and cable each represented about 29% of U.S. television viewing.
- In 2025, 56% of surveyed global marketers planned to increase OTT/CTV spending.
- In Q3 2023, CTV penetration was 75% of U.S. television homes among people ages 2 and older.
- In fiscal 2024, Disney reported $3.676 billion in advertising revenue.
- In 2024, Paramount TV Media reported $8.180 billion in advertising revenue.
- In 2024, 72% of surveyed global marketers expected larger advertising budgets.
- In 2024, 84% of surveyed global marketers said they were extremely or very confident in ROI measurement.
- In Nielsen’s campaign analysis, well-diversified campaigns reached 90% of their target audience across CTV, desktop and mobile.
Contents
- Global television advertising market size and spending
- Television advertising trends: linear, streaming and digital video
- Connected-TV viewing and ad-supported television data
- Television advertising revenue by major media companies
- Television ad reach, measurement and campaign performance
Global Television Advertising Market Size and Spending
WPP’s 2024 annual report, which presents GroupM market estimates, places television inside a global advertising market that exceeded $1 trillion in 2024. TV accounted for 16% of total global advertising spend, while digital advertising accounted for 71%.
| Global measure | Period | Reported figure |
|---|---|---|
| Total advertising revenue | 2024 | More than $1 trillion |
| TV share of total advertising spend | 2024 | 16% |
| Digital share of total advertising spend | 2024 | 71% |
| Pureplay digital advertising revenue | 2024 | $740 billion |
Source: WPP Annual Report 2024. These are GroupM estimates, and WPP’s pureplay digital definition covers digital channels rather than television advertising as a whole.
The same source estimates that global TV ad spend increased 3.3% in 2024 after declining 1.1% in 2023. The figures describe year-over-year market change, not a measurement of advertising effectiveness.
For U.S. digital context, the IAB/PwC Internet Advertising Revenue Report: Full Year 2024 reports $258.6 billion in internet advertising revenue in 2024, up 14.9% year over year. Internet advertising is broader than television advertising, so it should not be substituted for total U.S. TV spend.
Television Advertising Trends: Linear, Streaming and Digital Video
Television’s headline growth depends on which part of the market is measured. The IAB/PwC report records U.S. digital video advertising revenue of $62.1 billion in 2024, with digital video up 19.2% and representing 24.0% of internet advertising revenue.
| Measure | Geography | Period | Figure |
|---|---|---|---|
| TV advertising revenue growth | United States | 2024 | 6.6% |
| TV advertising revenue growth | United States | 2023 | 0.4% |
| Digital video advertising growth | United States | 2024 | 19.2% |
| Digital video share of internet ad revenue | United States | 2024 | 24.0% |
The U.S. TV advertising growth figures are estimates sourced in the IAB/PwC report from the PwC Entertainment and Media Outlook, while the digital-video figures are IAB/PwC measurements. Digital video is broader than connected TV alone.
Globally, WPP/GroupM estimates show a split between established linear channels and streaming services:
- Linear channels accounted for three-quarters of global TV advertising spend in 2024, and linear TV advertising declined 1% during the year.
- Streaming services received one-quarter of global TV advertising spend in 2024, while streaming TV advertising grew 20%.
WPP’s 2023 strategic report estimated that television represented 18% of global ad revenue in 2023 and forecast total TV ad revenue to grow at a 1% compound annual rate through 2028. That 2028 figure is a forecast published in the 2023 report, not a realized result.
Connected-TV Viewing and Ad-Supported Television Data
Nielsen’s Ad Supported Gauge measures viewing time rather than the number of unique people exposed to an advertisement. In Q1 2025, 72.4% of U.S. television viewing was on ad-supported platforms and 27.6% was on ad-free platforms.
Broadcast and cable each represented about 29% of U.S. television viewing in the same Q1 2025 measure. Nielsen states that broadcast and cable together accounted for 58% of ad-supported viewing, while a separate Nielsen report describes streaming as 42.4% of ad-supported television viewing in its 2025 report.
Source: Nielsen Launches the Ad Supported Gauge. The 58% combined figure reflects Nielsen’s stated approximate 29% shares for broadcast and cable.
Nielsen also reports changing advertiser interest in connected television. In its 2025 article, 56% of global marketers planned to increase OTT/CTV spending in 2025, compared with 53% who planned to increase it in 2024.
These are self-reported plans, not actual spending. The related Connected TV is transforming advertising findings therefore describe marketer intent rather than a realized market total.
In Nielsen’s Q3 2023 comparison dataset, U.S. CTV penetration was 75% of television homes among people ages 2 and older. The same dataset reports that U.S. viewers spent 4 hours 11 minutes per day with television; that is total TV time, not advertising time.
Television Advertising Revenue by Major Media Companies
Company filings provide reported revenue for businesses with different segment boundaries. They are useful indicators of company scale, but they are not interchangeable with total market spend or proof of advertising effectiveness.
| Company or segment | Period | Advertising revenue | Reported change or mix |
|---|---|---|---|
| Disney total advertising | Fiscal 2024 | $3.676 billion | Down 12% |
| Disney domestic advertising | Fiscal 2024 | $2.705 billion | Down 15% |
| Disney international advertising | Fiscal 2024 | $971 million | Down 1% |
| Paramount total advertising | 2024 | $10.295 billion | 35% of total revenue |
| Paramount TV Media | 2024 | $8.180 billion | Down less than 1% |
Disney’s figures come from The Walt Disney Company 2024 Annual Report. Disney reported that the domestic decline was influenced partly by fewer impressions and lower political advertising, while the international decline was 1%.
Paramount’s figures come from Paramount Global 2024 Form 10-K. Paramount TV Media includes broadcast and cable networks, stations and related TV operations, while the company-wide total includes broadcast, cable and streaming services.
Paramount reported an $8 million decrease for TV Media and rounded the percentage change to 0%, described here as down less than 1%. Differences in fiscal periods, geographic coverage and segment definitions mean the Disney and Paramount figures should not be treated as a league table.
Television Ad Reach, Measurement and Campaign Performance
Nielsen’s 2024 Annual Marketing Report shows how advertising decisions are shaped by planned budgets and measurement confidence. In the global marketer survey, 72% expected bigger advertising budgets in 2024, compared with 64% in the prior-year comparison.
- Global marketers planned to allocate more than 63% of media spending to digital channels in 2024, compared with a reported 50:50 traditional-to-digital split one year earlier.
- In 2024, 84% of global marketers said they were extremely or very confident in ROI measurement, compared with 69% in the 2023 comparison.
Source: 2024 Nielsen Annual Marketing Report: Maximizing ROI in a Fragmented World. These results describe planned allocations and self-reported confidence, not audited budgets or validated measurement accuracy.
Cross-media results also show why television reach cannot be evaluated in isolation. Nielsen’s analysis found that only 36% of media channels performed above average on both sales and awareness globally, while only 20% did so in the United States.
Campaign concentration was associated with limited reach in Nielsen’s observational analysis. Campaigns that put more than 85% of budget into one media bucket reached at most 17% of their target audience, whereas well-diversified campaigns reached 90% across CTV, desktop and mobile screens.
Source: Need to Know: Why do we need cross-media measurement?. These are Nielsen comparative campaign findings across media channels, not TV-only results or randomized causal tests.