A new report from the Television Bureau of Advertising (TVB) casts doubt among those who think linear TV’s days are numbered.
According to the association’s 2026 Media Comparisons Study, TV, viewed on a television screen, has the highest reach and time spent of all media platforms studied, for all age groups and categories measured and in addition, the majority of those viewers are reached through broadcast TV.
The report, conducted by GfK/NIQ and commissioned by TVB, examined media use among adults 18+ on over 20 traditional and digital media platforms including free, paid ad-supported, and advertising-free streaming platforms, as well as user-generated and short-form content like YouTube. It measured linear broadcast viewing of programs on TV, mobile devices, websites/apps, and digital devices to get a complete picture of broadcast’s assets, TVB said.
In addition to analyzing reach and time spent, the study also looked at what news sources are considered most trustworthy, the level of community involvement, and motivation to do further research online.
The report also had more good news for local TV, as the majority of respondents (79%) cited local stations as their most trusted news source, with 47% of respondents citing local broadcast television assets as “most involved in their community.” Ranked at the bottom of the list were social media and news aggregator websites.
In terms of broadcast, the study reported that more time is spent with broadcast TV across all devices than with cable and streaming programs and that respondents spend far more time on broadcast TV than on user generated and short-form content like YouTube.
Other key findings of the study include:
- TV ads motivate viewers to do further research online.
- 85% of broadcast viewing is on the larger TV screen, while 51% of viewing time on platforms like YouTube is on smaller digital devices.
- Total broadcast assets can reach nine out of ten adults 18+ and in key categories.
- Broadcast websites, and broadcast TV on a digital device, added more reach to broadcast TV than cable and AVOD.
- When looking at long-form ad-supported programming, linear TV represents 68% of viewing time, while streaming represents 32%.
- Broadcast reaches 94% of ad-supported streamers who stream on their TV sets.
- Advertisers cannot reach ad-free streamers, but broadcast assets can reach 92% of them.
The survey covered a base sample of 4,000 and was conducted in November and December 2025.
