Cutting the Cord: Streaming Now Leads TV. What It Means for Marketers
When I wrote this in 2024, the headline forecast was that streaming would overtake traditional pay TV in the US by 2025. Measured by viewing time, that is roughly what happened, and the shift has kept going.
What actually happened
Nielsen's monthly Gauge tracks how Americans spend their time on the TV set. In May 2025, streaming took 44.8% of TV viewing, more than broadcast (20.1%) and cable (24.1%) combined, for the first time. By July 2026, streaming had reached 49.0%, with broadcast at 19.5% and cable at 18.7%. YouTube alone accounted for 14.2% of all US TV viewing that month.
The UK is moving the same way. Ofcom's Media Nations 2026 report found that 26% of viewers now name Netflix as their first choice when looking for something to watch, level with the BBC at 25%. Subscription streaming has plateaued at around 70% of homes, while daily YouTube viewing on TV sets more than doubled, from 9 minutes per person in 2022 to 19 minutes in 2025.
What OTT means
OTT ("over the top") is any video delivered over the internet rather than through a cable or satellite box: Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video, broadcaster apps like BBC iPlayer and ITVX, and YouTube. The original reasons people switched still apply. They choose what to watch and when, on whatever screen is nearest.
What it means for marketers
The 2024 version of this article talked about moving TV budgets to streaming ads. That advice holds for brands with a TV budget. Most of the businesses I work with (coaches, consultants, therapists, small professional firms) are unlikely ever to buy a TV ad. For them, three things matter more:
- YouTube is now television. A useful long-form video can end up on someone's living-room screen as well as their phone. That changes what is worth making: calmer, longer explanations of the problems your clients have, alongside short clips.
- Attention is split across more places. Nobody watches one channel any more, so nobody sees one message. Repetition across a few formats does more than one perfect piece.
- Targeting has limits. Streaming platforms can target ads by demographics and interests. For a business that needs 20 new clients a year, the most precise targeting available is still a named list of the right people, contacted directly.
What I would do with a small budget
- Record one longer video a month answering a question clients actually ask. Put it on YouTube and on your site.
- Reuse it. The same recording can become posts, a newsletter and short clips. Our content engine handles the written side from a single voice note: posts, newsletters and carousels in your voice, with nothing going out until you approve it.
- Reach the people who matter directly. Content builds familiarity, but targeted outreach to a well-defined ideal client, with an easy opt-out, is far more reliable than waiting for viewers to get in touch. On every account we run that tried both, warm outreach to existing connections beat cold by 2x to 5x on reply rate.
The cord-cutting story turned out to be true. The practical lesson for a small business is simpler than the headlines: be useful on the screens people already watch, and talk directly to the people you most want to work with.
If you are not sure where to start, the 10-Hour Audit looks at where your marketing and admin time goes now and what could be automated.
