Broadcast television remains a large U.S. distribution system even as streaming expands. The measurements below distinguish television-household reach, antenna access, broadcast-category TV usage, linear viewing, licensed facilities, survey-reported news access and cross-platform audiences.
Key Broadcast TV Statistics
The most broadly useful broadcast TV figures include:
- In 2023–24, 125 million U.S. TV households were included in Nielsen’s TV-universe estimate, up 1% from the prior year.
- In 2023–24, just under 97% of U.S. households had at least one television used to watch programming.
- In 2023–24, 18.125 million U.S. households were classified as OTA households by Nielsen.
- In 2023–24, 22.750 million U.S. households accessed TV content through an OTA antenna.
- In November 2023, more than 18% of U.S. TV households had an OTA-enabled set.
- From October 2022 to October 2023, about 92% of U.S. TV households watched some linear programming.
- In November 2023, broadcast and cable together represented 53.2% of TV usage in the United States.
- Through November 2023, broadcast programming generated 61.2 billion Nielsen audience units in the United States.
- In July 2023, broadcast accounted for 20.0% of U.S. TV usage.
- In July 2024, broadcast accounted for 20.3% of U.S. TV usage, 5% higher than in July 2023.
- In the final week of July 2024, the Olympics pushed weekly broadcast usage above 22% of total TV usage.
- On July 28, 2024, the largest Olympics broadcast telecast averaged 19 million U.S. viewers.
- In 2023, the three nationally televised Thanksgiving games averaged 32.2 million live out-of-home viewers.
- As of September 30, 2024, the FCC counted 1,766 full-power commercial and educational UHF/VHF TV stations.
- In 2024, 62% of U.S. adults accessed local news from the station on television.
- In December 2024, streaming represented more than 43% of Americans’ total TV time.
Contents
- Key Broadcast TV Statistics
- U.S. Broadcast TV Household Reach and Over-the-Air Adoption
- Broadcast TV Viewing Share and Time-Shifted Trends
- Broadcast TV Audiences, Sports and Major Live Events
- Local Broadcast TV Stations and Programming Scale
- Broadcast TV News Access and Audience Behavior
- Broadcast TV Compared With Streaming, Cable and Connected TV
U.S. Broadcast TV Household Reach and Over-the-Air Adoption
Nielsen’s 2023–24 estimate placed the U.S. TV universe at 125 million TV households, 1% higher than the previous year. Just under 97% of U.S. households had at least one TV used to watch programming, and those TV households represented almost 315.3 million people; Nielsen’s definition covers people living in TV households rather than every U.S. resident. Nielsen, “Beyond big data: The audience watching over the air”
OTA access was broader than the narrower OTA-household classification. Nielsen estimated 18.125 million OTA households in 2023–24, while another 4.625 million cable and satellite households had OTA-capable sets.
| Measure | Period | U.S. result |
|---|---|---|
| OTA households | 2023–24 | 18.125 million |
| Cable/satellite households with OTA-capable sets | 2023–24 | 4.625 million |
| Households accessing content through an OTA antenna | 2023–24 | 22.750 million |
| TV households with at least one OTA-enabled set | November 2023 | More than 18% |
The 22.750 million estimate includes standalone OTA homes and cable or satellite homes with OTA access. An OTA-capable set does not establish how often it was watched, and the 14.5% OTA-household estimate for Q3 2023 may include virtual multichannel provider homes.
Adoption varied by market. In 2023, more than 27% of Houston TV homes had at least one free-broadcast-enabled set, nearly 24% used antennas as their primary TV source, and Oklahoma City led the cited market comparison with 37.3% of TV homes having at least one OTA-enabled set.
These are selected-market Nielsen estimates, not a national average. Nielsen, “Beyond big data: The audience watching over the air”
OTA households were not necessarily disconnected from subscription video. In 2023, 60% of OTA households subscribed to an SVOD service; among OTA households without an SVOD subscription, nearly 60% were one-person households, while 45% of OTA households with SVOD but without a vMVPD contained at least three people.
These are survey subgroup findings, not viewing-share measurements. Nielsen, “Beyond big data: The audience watching over the air”
Broadcast TV Viewing Share and Time-Shifted Trends
Linear television remained widespread in the October 2022–October 2023 interval: about 92% of U.S. TV households watched some form of linear programming. That category includes more than over-the-air broadcast, so it should not be read as an antenna-only reach figure. Nielsen, “Beyond big data: The audience watching over the air”
Nielsen’s 2023 totals show the scale of broadcast alongside cable. Through the first 11 months of 2023, broadcast programming attracted 61.2 billion audience units, while broadcast and cable together attracted 185.1 billion audience units.
| Viewing measure | Period | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Broadcast plus cable share of TV usage | November 2023 | 53.2% |
| Broadcast plus cable share of TV usage | January–November 2023 | Above 50% throughout |
| Broadcast audience units | January–November 2023 | 61.2 billion |
| Broadcast plus cable audience units | January–November 2023 | 185.1 billion |
In July 2023, streaming reached 38.7% of total TV usage and broadcast represented 20.0%. Broadcast usage was down 5.4% year over year and 3.6% from June to July, while drama represented 25.7% of broadcast viewing. Nielsen, “Streaming grabs a record 38.7% of total TV usage in July, with acquired titles outpacing new originals”
Sports illustrate how broadcast viewing changes by season. Broadcast sports generated almost 25 billion viewing minutes in July 2023, compared with 150 billion broadcast sports viewing minutes in November 2022; these are Nielsen genre totals for their respective months, not annual totals. Nielsen, “Streaming grabs a record 38.7% of total TV usage in July, with acquired titles outpacing new originals”
Time-shifted viewing was also part of traditional television behavior. In Q3 2022, it represented 17% of weekly time spent with traditional television among U.S. adults 18+, where traditional TV includes broadcast and cable and time-shifted means viewing after original airing.
People in connected-TV homes spent just under 70 minutes per day with TV-connected-device content, a broader measure than broadcast reception. Nielsen, “Connectivity is driving how Americans are engaging with TV”
Broadcast TV Audiences, Sports and Major Live Events
Broadcast’s July 2024 share rose to 20.3% of U.S. TV usage, 5% higher than July 2023 and 0.3 percentage points above the July 2023 record-low share. Total TV usage rose 2.3% from June to July 2024 and 3.5% from July 2023 to July 2024. Nielsen, “July Exhibits Rare Upswing in TV Viewing, Amplified by Streaming and First Days of Summer Olympics”
The Olympics produced a concentrated broadcast lift. In the final week of July 2024, the weekly broadcast average exceeded 22% of total TV usage; the largest July 28 Olympics broadcast telecast averaged 19 million viewers, and the Olympics occupied the top five and seven of the top ten broadcast telecasts in Nielsen’s July report.
Out-of-home measurement shows why event audiences can exceed in-home impressions. The three nationally televised Thanksgiving games averaged 32.2 million live out-of-home viewers in 2023, and more than 41% of the live audience for Washington–Dallas watched away from home. Nielsen, “Out of home: the TV audience that’s bigger than you think”
| Broadcast event | Period | Out-of-home result |
|---|---|---|
| Three nationally televised Thanksgiving games | 2023 | 32.2 million average live viewers |
| Washington–Dallas NFL Thanksgiving game | 2023 | More than 41% of live audience away from home |
| Oscars | 2023 | 1.3 million live out-of-home viewers; 8.7% of total audience |
| GRAMMY Awards | 2023 | 627,000 live out-of-home viewers; 6% of total audience |
The Oscars and GRAMMY figures are out-of-home audiences, not total program audiences. They should therefore be used to understand the additional viewing context measured outside the home rather than as substitutes for complete reach totals. Nielsen, “Out of home: the TV audience that’s bigger than you think”
Local Broadcast TV Stations and Programming Scale
The FCC counted 1,026 UHF commercial TV stations and 358 VHF commercial stations as of September 30, 2024. It also counted 268 UHF educational stations and 114 VHF educational stations.
| FCC facility category | Licensed facilities, September 30, 2024 |
|---|---|
| UHF commercial TV stations | 1,026 |
| VHF commercial TV stations | 358 |
| UHF educational TV stations | 268 |
| VHF educational TV stations | 114 |
| Full-power commercial and educational UHF/VHF stations | 1,766 |
| UHF and VHF translators | 3,092 |
The FCC’s 1,766 total is its full-power commercial and educational UHF/VHF TV-station line. The 3,092 translator figure is a derived sum of FCC-listed UHF and VHF translator counts; translators, low-power facilities and other classes should not be silently combined with the full-power total. FCC, “Broadcast Station Totals as of September 30, 2024”
Broadcast TV News Access and Audience Behavior
Local broadcast television remained the most commonly reported route to local news in Pew Research Center’s 2024 chart: 62% of U.S. adults accessed local news from the station on TV, compared with 37% who accessed local news online. The displayed percentages differ by 25 percentage points, a derived comparison rather than a respondent-level measure of exclusive behavior. Pew Research Center, “How U.S. adults access local TV news”
These Pew figures measure reported access, not minutes watched. They also describe separate channels, so they should not be interpreted as mutually exclusive audiences.
Nielsen’s 2024 election-news analysis found that women watched 47.7% more minutes of broadcast news than men, while men watched 5.7% more minutes of cable news than women. The cable comparison is included as a contrast to broadcast news, and the source result is a web summary associated with election news. Pew Research Center, “How U.S. adults access local TV news”
For broader television-news context, Nielsen identified the August 23, 2023 Republican debate as its largest cited cable telecast of 2023. That program was cable, not broadcast, and is not part of broadcast station reach. Nielsen, “Tops of 2023: TV”
Broadcast TV Compared With Streaming, Cable and Connected TV
Streaming’s share of television time grew substantially across the supplied comparison points: it was about 26% of Americans’ TV time in May 2021 and more than 43% in December 2024. These are streaming shares of TV time, not broadcast shares.
| Metric | Period | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Streaming share of total TV usage | July 2023 | 38.7% |
| Streaming share of TV time | February 2024 | 37.7% |
| Streaming share of TV time | December 2024 | More than 43% |
| Streaming share of TV time | May 2021 | About 26% |
| CTV usage among adults 18+ | Q2 2023 | Just over 32% of TV usage |
Connected TV is not identical to streaming-only usage. In Q2 2023, CTV usage represented just over 32% of TV usage among U.S. adults 18+, while internet-connected TV-content homes increased by more than 210% from September 2019 to September 2023; Nielsen defines those homes as streaming TV content and/or using a vMVPD. Nielsen, “Beyond big data: The audience watching over the air”
The three independently reported FAST services represented 3.2% of total TV use in November 2023. FAST is therefore a distinct portion of the broader streaming and connected-TV environment measured by The Gauge. Nielsen, “Tops of 2023: TV”
Cross-platform titles can combine broadcast, cable and streaming audiences. In May 2024, Young Sheldon generated 6 billion viewing minutes across those three platforms, while its CBS series finale drew 11.74 million live-plus-seven-day viewers; live+7 includes live viewing plus up to seven days of linear time-shifted viewing. Nielsen, “Trend spotlight: What The Gauge shows us about media convergence”
Large live events remain capable of producing exceptional totals. Super Bowl LVIII attracted 123.7 million U.S. viewers and generated 30 billion viewing minutes on February 11, 2024, while streaming represented 37.7% of TV usage in February 2024; the event total is not limited to viewers of the broadcast signal. Nielsen, “July Exhibits Rare Upswing in TV Viewing, Amplified by Streaming and First Days of Summer Olympics”