Comscore today published the first edition of The Score Report, a monthly tally of where television advertising is actually seen in the United States. The August 2026 edition puts broadcast at 43.2% of measured TV ad exposure time, cable at 34.5% and streaming at 22.3%. Streaming's share stood at 16.1% twelve months earlier.

In Short

Comscore, a company that measures what people watch, now publishes a monthly report showing how much of the time Americans spend seeing TV ads happens on broadcast channels, cable channels and streaming apps. Broadcast still accounts for the biggest slice of ad time, even though most homes now stream, because many streaming hours come with few or no ads. For anyone buying TV ads, it means the share of an audience a channel holds is not the same as the share of ad time it can sell.

What Comscore published

The release is dated October 21, 2026, from Comscore's base in Reston, Virginia. According to Comscore, the Score Report highlights "Share of Ad Exposure Time trends across television viewing platforms" and is meant to show "the percentage of total TV Ad Exposure Time attributed to each provider." New editions will be published monthly, the company said. The August 2026 report sits on a dedicated page on Comscore's site, which carries a "Report Month" selector set to August 2026 and no publication date of its own.

The page is organized into six tabs: Ad Exposure Time, Ad Exposure Time Trend, Ownership and Parent Company, Top Publishers by Platform, Top 10 Markets, and an FAQ. It describes itself as "an independent view of advertising exposure across U.S. and local-market television, making it easy to compare ad activity across platforms, networks and markets." It also closes with a sales prompt, "Looking for more data and trends? Get the full picture now," linked to a Comscore contact form. The free report is, in other words, a shop window for the paid data behind it.

That is not unusual for a measurement company. It does matter for how the numbers are read, because Comscore sells TV measurement in direct competition with Nielsen, whose own monthly scorecard of viewing has become the industry's default reference point.

How the metric is defined

The FAQ gives one definition in full. Share of Ad Exposure Time, according to Comscore, is "The Score Report's key metric for measuring the percentage of total measurable television advertising viewership attributed to a publisher, platform, or owner." The calculation is "An entity's total ad exposure time ÷ all measurable advertising exposure captured within The Score Report reporting universe, during the reporting period."

Every chart on the page carries the same source note: "Comscore share of ad exposure time data by broadcast month. Includes measurements of all ads, including linear-originating, streaming-originating, national, and local for all 210 markets tracked by Comscore across broadcast networks, cable networks, and streaming services."

Two practical points follow. First, the report counts ad time, not ad impressions or ad spend. A 30-second spot watched through in full contributes more exposure time than a 15-second one. Second, it publishes only shares. No absolute figure for total minutes or hours of ad exposure appears anywhere in either document, so a rising share could, in principle, coincide with a shrinking pool.

The headline split

In August 2026, according to Comscore, broadcast accounted for 43.2% of Total U.S. Share of Ad Exposure Time, cable for 34.5% and streaming for 22.3%. The three figures sum to 100%.

Comscore set those numbers against two measures of audience reach. According to the release, "over 74% of U.S. households stream on Connected TV," citing Comscore CTV Intelligence for August 2026. It adds that 130.6 million U.S. adults used a free or ad-supported streaming video service in the three months before August 2026, which the company puts at 47% of the total U.S. adult population, citing Comscore Digital Plan Metrix Multi-Platform.

The comparison is not like for like. A household that streams at all counts toward the 74% whether it streams one hour a month or forty, while the 22.3% is a share of time. What the contrast does show is that broad streaming reach has not translated into a matching share of ad minutes. Comscore's own reading is that "while broadcast - with its well-understood formats and measurement - is still favored by many brands, an opportunity exists for advertisers to capitalize on existing and emerging streaming opportunities."

Nielsen's figures sharpen the gap, though with a different method and a different month. Nielsen's Gauge put streaming at 48.6% of all US TV viewing time in May 2026, with cable at 20.4% and broadcast at 19.2%. Placed next to Comscore's August figures, the ordering is inverted: broadcast, last of three on viewing time in Nielsen's data, comes first on ad time in Comscore's. The two series cannot be subtracted from one another, and a share of ad time measured by one company is not a share of viewing measured by another. Still, the inversion is what the Score Report is built to expose. Much streaming time, on subscription tiers without ads, generates no ad exposure at all.

Twelve months of trend data

The trend chart covers September 2025 to August 2026. Read off the bars, streaming's share ran 16.1% in September 2025, 16.4% in October, 17.5% in November, 18.5% in December and 16.6% in January 2026. It then stepped up to 21.1% in February, and read 20.5% in March, 20.3% in April, 20.2% in May, 21.1% in June, 21.9% in July and 22.3% in August.

According to Comscore, "streaming's share of measured television Ad Exposure has steadily climbed from 16.1% to 22.3%, a gain of 6.2 percentage points." The release adds that "Beginning in February, it accounted for at least one-fifth of measured ad exposure every month, following a plateau of around 19% during the preceding five months."

The chart supports the endpoints and the one-fifth claim. It does not support the plateau. The five months before February, September through January, show streaming between 16.1% and 18.5%; none of them reaches 19%. By PPC Land's calculation, their average is 17.0%. The path was also less steady than "steadily climbed" suggests: streaming fell two points from December to January, and slipped from 21.1% in February to 20.2% by May before rising again. Comscore does not explain the jump of 4.5 points between January and February.

Where streaming's gains came from

Broadcast's share was 46.6% in September 2025, then 47.3%, 47.5%, 46.4% and 47.1% through January, before dropping to 44.6% in February, 43.2% in March and 43.1% in April. It recovered to 44.7% in May and June, then fell to 44.0% in July and 43.2% in August. Cable ran from 37.3% in September 2025 to 34.5% in August 2026, touching a low of 34.1% in July.

Over the full year, then, broadcast gave up 3.4 points and cable 2.8 points, by PPC Land's subtraction of the chart's first and last bars. Both ceded ground to streaming, broadcast slightly more.

The release frames the most recent movement differently. Under its summary of findings, Comscore writes: "Ad exposure on streaming is on the rise, shifting from cable. Streaming represented 22.3% of Total U.S. Share of Ad Exposure Time in August, up from 21.9% in July and 21.1% in June." The streaming figures match the chart. The source of the shift does not. Cable's share rose from 34.1% in July to 34.5% in August, while broadcast fell from 44.0% to 43.2%. Between June and August, cable moved from 34.2% to 34.5% and broadcast from 44.7% to 43.2%. On Comscore's own chart, streaming's summer gain came out of broadcast, not cable.

Streaming: YouTube's lead, and a contested third place

Inside streaming, the August ranking is lopsided. According to Comscore, YouTube represented 44.4% of measured streaming Ad Exposure Time, followed by Tubi TV at 11.6% and Hulu at 8.5%. The rest of the top ten, as charted, were Prime Video at 7.0%, The Roku Channel at 6.6%, Netflix at 6.3%, Peacock at 5.0%, Disney+ at 3.0%, Pluto TV at 2.9% and Paramount+ at 2.2%.

Those ten services sum to 97.5% of streaming ad exposure time, by PPC Land's addition. Every other ad-supported streaming service measured in the report shares the remaining 2.5%.

Expressed against all television, YouTube's 44.4% of streaming's 22.3% works out to about 9.9% of total US ad exposure time, again PPC Land's calculation. That matches the 9.9% Comscore assigns to Google in its publisher parent company ranking. For comparison, Tubi passed 100 million monthly active users in May 2025, and in August 2026 held about 2.6% of all US TV ad exposure time on the same arithmetic.

Whether the YouTube figure includes YouTube TV, the live channel bundle, is a question the page itself raises without answering in the material provided. The FAQ lists "How are vMVPD services, such as YouTube TV, Sling, or Hulu Live, reported?" as a question. Its answer was collapsed in the copy of the page PPC Land reviewed, as were the answers on device coverage, reporting period and how the report is created. A vMVPD carries cable and broadcast channels over the internet, so whether those ads count as streaming or as the channel's own platform changes the split materially.

The number three spot

Comscore draws attention to the churn behind YouTube and Tubi. "While YouTube and Tubi TV consistently nab the top two spots for Share of Ad Exposure Time across streaming providers, the third spot frequently changes hands," according to the release. Hulu held it in August with 8.5%. In earlier months, Comscore says, it went to Peacock in July with 7.2%, Netflix in June with 8.0% and Amazon Prime Video in May with 7.4%.

The company offers a tentative explanation for Hulu's August rise. "This may have been due to Hulu's significant expansion of its ad-supported streaming catalog in August 2026 with a wave of popular films, nostalgic favorites, and acclaimed documentaries," the release states. It does not quantify the expansion. Comscore expects the jostling to continue: "Many other providers are following suit, so it is likely that competition for attention will continue to be fierce."

Peacock's move is the largest implied by the figures. It held third place in July at 7.2% of streaming ad time, according to the release, and ranked seventh in August at 5.0%, according to the chart. Neither document comments on that drop. Only the August month-by-provider ranking is published on the page; the earlier third-place figures appear only in the release.

Broadcast and cable networks

The broadcast ranking is a near three-way tie at the top. Within broadcast's 43.2% of total ad exposure time, according to the report, ABC accounted for 25.1%, NBC for 24.2% and CBS for 23.7%. FOX followed at 10.5%, then The CW at 4.2%, ION at 3.7%, Univision at 3.5%, Telemundo at 2.8%, My Network TV at 1.4% and UniMas at 0.5%.

Cable is more concentrated at the top. FOX News Channel held 15.4% of cable ad exposure time, nearly three times the 5.8% of second-placed MS NOW. CNN took 4.8%, HGTV 3.1%, ESPN 2.9%, TV Land and Hallmark 2.7% each, TBS 2.4%, Game Show Network 2.3% and USA 2.2%. Applied to cable's 34.5% share, FOX News Channel alone represents roughly 5.3% of all US TV ad exposure time, by PPC Land's calculation, more than any streaming service except YouTube.

Owners versus parent companies

The report's most distinctive section ranks the top 20 companies two ways, and the gap between the two lists is itself informative about how US local television is wired.

In the By Owner view, "Local-market broadcast stations are grouped under the company that owns and operates the station, regardless of the network programming it carries. For example, a Nexstar-owned ABC affiliate is counted under Nexstar, not Disney ABC." In the By Publisher Parent Company view, stations "are grouped under the company that distributes the programming they carry. For example, an ABC affiliate is counted under Disney ABC, even if the station is owned by a different company such as Hearst or Nexstar."

By owner, FOX leads with 10.5% of total ad exposure time. Google follows at 9.8%, Nexstar at 9.3%, Warner Bros. Discovery at 8.7%, Gray Media Group at 8.0%, Disney ABC at 7.8% and Paramount at 7.6%. Versant and NBCU appear separately at 4.3% and 4.2%. E.W. Scripps holds 3.4%, Sinclair Television Group 3.3%, Hearst Television 2.5%, A+E Networks 1.9%, Amazon Prime Video 1.6%, Crown Media and The Roku Channel 1.5% each, TelevisaUnivision and Netflix 1.4% each, Cox Media Group 1.0% and Sony 0.8%. A footnote states that "TEGNA, Inc. is included under Nexstar." The report gives no further explanation of that grouping.

By publisher parent company, the order changes. NBCUniversal+Versant, combined into a single entry, leads at 17.5%, followed by Disney ABC at 15.9%, Paramount at 15.1%, FOX at 13.6%, Google at 9.9% and Warner Bros. Discovery at 8.8%. Nexstar drops to 2.0%. A+E Networks and TelevisaUnivision hold 1.9% each, E.W. Scripps 1.7%, Amazon Prime Video 1.6%, Crown Media and The Roku Channel 1.5% each, Netflix 1.4%, Sony 0.8%, Inspiration Ministries 0.6%, AMC networks and Cablevision 0.5% each, and NFL and AMC 0.4% each.

The swing for station groups is large. Nexstar's share falls from 9.3% as an owner to 2.0% as a programmer, a difference of 7.3 points that reflects ad time on stations it operates but whose network programming comes from ABC, CBS, NBC or FOX. Gray Media, Sinclair, Hearst and Cox Media Group appear only on the owner list. Disney ABC, by contrast, more than doubles from 7.8% to 15.9% once affiliates owned by others are counted toward it, and NBCU and Versant together rise from 8.5% to 17.5%.

Two small inconsistencies sit between the lists. Google is 9.8% by owner and 9.9% by publisher parent, a gap the report does not explain. TelevisaUnivision rises from 1.4% to 1.9%, which is consistent with Univision and UniMas affiliates owned by other groups being credited to it as a programmer. The report also lists "AMC networks" and "AMC" as two separate entries in the parent company ranking without saying how they differ.

Local measurement is where Comscore has pushed hardest against Nielsen. In April, Comscore signed more than 15 broadcast clients for its local products, including Sinclair, Scripps and Cox Media Group, all of which appear in today's owner ranking. Comscore's local measurement had earlier gained MRC accreditation across all 210 measured local markets in March 2024, for household ratings rather than demographics. The same 210-market footprint underpins the Score Report.

The top 10 markets

The final chart ranks local markets by their share of national ad exposure time in August 2026. New York leads with 5.6%, ahead of Los Angeles at 4.2%, Chicago at 2.9%, Philadelphia at 2.7%, Dallas-Ft. Worth at 2.2% and Houston at 2.0%. Atlanta and Washington, DC hold 1.9% each, and Boston and Phoenix 1.8% each. Together the ten account for 27.0% of the total, by PPC Land's addition. The report labels these as markets rather than as Nielsen designated market areas, though the 210 count matches the standard US market map.

The platform mix varies more than the national average suggests. Streaming's share ranges from 19.9% in Phoenix to 25.5% in Atlanta. Broadcast is strongest in Houston at 49.8% and Phoenix at 49.5%, and weakest in Washington, DC at 33.3%. Cable outweighs broadcast in three of the ten markets: Washington, DC, where it reaches 44.9%, Philadelphia at 42.6% against broadcast's 35.7%, and Boston at 39.0% against 36.6%.

The full platform composition, according to Comscore, reads as follows for broadcast, cable and streaming respectively:

  • New York: 40.4%, 39.1%, 20.5%
  • Los Angeles: 44.3%, 33.0%, 22.7%
  • Chicago: 47.6%, 31.2%, 21.2%
  • Philadelphia: 35.7%, 42.6%, 21.7%
  • Dallas-Ft. Worth: 46.4%, 28.7%, 24.9%
  • Houston: 49.8%, 28.0%, 22.2%
  • Atlanta: 37.6%, 36.8%, 25.5%
  • Washington, DC: 33.3%, 44.9%, 21.8%
  • Boston: 36.6%, 39.0%, 24.3%
  • Phoenix: 49.5%, 30.6%, 19.9%

Dallas-Ft. Worth and Atlanta are the only two of the ten where streaming tops 24.5%. New York, the largest market, sits below the national streaming average at 20.5%.

What the company and Nexstar said

Kevin Burns, interim Chief Revenue Officer at Comscore, framed the report around the limits of audience data. "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," he said, according to the release. "The report seeks to address the challenge of viewership no longer serving as a sufficient proxy for ad-addressable audiences, as audiences migrate across channels, platforms, and devices."

The release also carries a quote from a broadcaster that ranks third in the owner list. "Nexstar welcomes greater transparency into how advertising reaches audiences across broadcast TV, cable, and streaming," said Dan Lanzano, President, National Ad Sales, Nexstar. "By providing a clearer picture of advertising exposure across platforms, The Score Report delivers valuable insights that empower advertisers to make more informed investment decisions and better understand the evolving media landscape."

A station group endorsing a metric on which broadcast leads is unsurprising. Broadcast and cable sellers have spent much of 2026 arguing that viewing-share data understates their value. When Nielsen delayed its February Gauge and reverted to an earlier method, the VAB accused it of suppressing data that would have shown linear TV ahead of streaming. A monthly ranking built on ad time, where linear TV - broadcast and cable combined - holds 77.7% of the total by PPC Land's addition, gives that argument a regular, quotable number from a rival measurement provider.

What the sources leave out

Several elements a buyer would need to judge the figures are absent from both documents, or hidden in collapsed sections of the page:

  • Devices. The FAQ asks "What devices are measured in The Score Report?" but the answer is not visible. The release cites CTV reach, yet it is unclear whether streaming ad exposure on phones, tablets and computers counts.
  • Measurement source. Neither document says whether ad exposure comes from set-top box and smart TV data, ad server logs, a panel, or a combination, nor how streaming-originating and linear-originating ads are detected and deduplicated.
  • Reporting period. The source notes refer to a "broadcast month," and the FAQ asks how Comscore defines the reporting period, but the dates covered by "August 2026" are not given.
  • Universe. "All measurable advertising exposure captured within The Score Report reporting universe" is not further defined. Services Comscore does not measure fall outside the denominator.
  • Absolute volumes. Only shares are published, with no minutes, impressions or households.
  • Earlier months. The release cites third-place streaming figures for May, June and July, but the page publishes provider rankings only for August.

Comscore states that "additional U.S. and market-level insights and reporting" are available, routed through its contact form.

Why the gap matters for media buyers

Planning decisions in US television still lean heavily on audience share, and the industry's attention for two years has been on streaming overtaking linear in viewing. Comscore's numbers point at a different denominator. If a little over a fifth of ad exposure time sits in streaming while roughly half of viewing does, as Nielsen's May data indicated, then streaming ad supply remains far thinner than streaming audiences, and much of it is concentrated in a single platform. YouTube alone accounted for almost half of streaming ad time in August, and the top ten services for nearly all of it.

The metric also reshapes the corporate league table. Station groups such as Nexstar and Gray look like major ad sellers on an ownership basis, and much smaller on a programming basis, which is relevant to anyone negotiating local versus network buys. And because Comscore publishes the market-level split, regional differences that national averages hide, such as cable's lead in Washington, DC or streaming's quarter share in Atlanta, are now visible each month without a subscription.

Comscore has spent the past two years building the measurement credentials behind such claims. It completed full JIC certification for national TV measurement in July 2025 and in January added daily program-level tracking across streaming and linear TV. The commercial backdrop is less comfortable. Comscore reported second-quarter revenue of $79.2 million in August, down 11.3%, and set out $20 million to $25 million in annual cost cuts, with Syndicated Audience revenue, which includes TV measurement, down 13.6%. The same filing period saw Chief Commercial Officer Steve Bagdasarian deemed to have resigned on August 10, which helps explain why the Score Report is fronted by an interim Chief Revenue Officer. The Score Report is Comscore's first recurring public scorecard positioned directly against Nielsen's Gauge. Whether buyers treat it as a second reference point, or as an argument for linear inventory made by a vendor competing for broadcasters' business, will depend on how much of the methodology Comscore makes visible in the editions to come.

Timeline

Summary

Who: Comscore, the Nasdaq-listed media measurement company based in Reston, Virginia, with comments from Kevin Burns, its interim Chief Revenue Officer, and Dan Lanzano, President, National Ad Sales at Nexstar.

What: A new monthly Score Report ranking US television by Share of Ad Exposure Time. The August 2026 edition puts broadcast at 43.2%, cable at 34.5% and streaming at 22.3%, with streaming up 6.2 points in twelve months. YouTube holds 44.4% of streaming ad time, and rankings are given by network, owner, parent company and market.

When: Published today, October 21, 2026, covering August 2026, with trend data from September 2025.

Where: The United States, across the 210 local markets Comscore tracks, with a separate breakdown for the ten largest markets by ad exposure.

Why: Comscore argues that viewing share is "no longer serving as a sufficient proxy for ad-addressable audiences." The report shows that streaming's share of ad time remains far below its share of viewing, a gap that matters for how TV budgets are split, while leaving device coverage, data sources and absolute volumes undisclosed.