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| August Ad Exposure |
Streaming now reaches nearly half of US adults with ads, yet accounts for only 22% of television ad exposure—barely half the share of broadcast.
Comscore’s new monthly Score Report, launched this week, quantifies that gap for the first time by tracking the percentage of total TV Ad Exposure Time across platforms rather than relying on traditional viewership figures. The inaugural August edition shows broadcast platforms still commanding 43.2% of ad exposure time, cable 34.5%, and streaming just 22.3%.
The disparity is narrowing. Streaming’s share has climbed 6.2 percentage points from 16.1% over the previous 12 months. In the three months before August 2026, 130.6 million US adults—47% of the adult population—used a free or ad-supported streaming service.
“The Score Report measures where audiences are actually reachable with advertising and gives brands an understanding of how ad viewership is changing as the media landscape continues to transform,” said Kevin Burns, Comscore’s interim chief revenue officer. The company argues that “viewership no longer serves as a sufficient proxy for ad-addressable audiences, as audiences migrate across channels, platforms, and devices.”
Because most major streamers only recently introduced ad-supported tiers, their share of commercial inventory lags well behind their growth in viewers. Comscore plans to publish updated Score Reports every month to give advertisers a clearer, more timely picture of where ads can actually reach audiences.