Despite continued trends towards consumption of streaming on CTV and use of free or ad-supported streaming services in the U.S. a new Score Report from Comscore shows there’s a gap between CTV viewership and the category’s share of ad exposure time.
But similar to its leading rank in the monthly share of TV time reported by Nielsen’s the Gauge, YouTube also regularly dominates share among streamers for the new ad exposure metric measured monthly by Comcsore’s The Score Report.
The monthly report, launched Wednesday, shows the percentage of total TV Ad Exposure time across categories and providers, only measuring ads exposed on an in-home TV device. For streaming this includes smart TVs and connected TV streaming devices, but not exposure on desk/laptops, mobile phones or tablets.
The August edition found that broadcast platforms are still the strong leader for share of ad exposure time at 43.2%, followed by cable at 34.5%, with streaming trailing in third at 22.3%.
Comscore noted this contrasts with viewership trends, including over 74% of U.S. households streaming content on connected TV. In addition, the firm noted 130.6 million U.S. adults used a free or ad-supported streaming video in the three months prior to August 2026, representing 47% of the total U.S. population.
“Given this gap, 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,” stated Comscore.
But while still lagging, streaming’s share of ad exposure time is on the rise. Its share steadily climbed 6.2 percentage points over the 12 months ending in August 20206, up from 16.1% in August 2025. Starting in February, streaming accounted for at least one-fifth of the measured ad exposure each month.
The report also lays out which platforms are capturing the largest share of ad exposure time, where YouTube and the Fox-owned Tubi AVOD consistently secure the top two spots across streaming providers, but third place is often a horse race.
August was no different for streamers in the top two, with YouTube in a commanding lead as it captured a whopping 44.4% share of streaming ad exposure time, followed by Tubi at 11.6%.
Disney’s Hulu secured the third spot at 8.5% - outpacing prior platforms holding that position, including Peacock (July, 7.2%), Netflix (June, 8%), and Amazon Prime Video (7.4%).
Comscore suggested Disney’s rise could be due in part to Hulu’s significant expansion of its ad-supported streaming catalog in August 2026.
“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, interim Chief Revenue Officer at Comscore, in a statement. “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.”
And while there’s a clear gap between viewership and share of ad exposure time on streaming, it’s important to note that Comscore’s report doesn’t measure available ad inventory, the number of ad slots, advertising spend, unique reach or frequency.
Results can also be influenced by audience scale, time spent with ad-supported content and advertising load.
So while major SVODs alike have rolled out ad-supported tiers and we’ve seen free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) rise, it’s worth remembering there are still plenty of streaming viewers watching ad-free content – whereas in contrast, essentially all viewing on broadcast and traditional cable has advertising. So it might not come as a total surprise that those categories account for larger shares.
And while ad loads on streaming have risen, it’s also generally understood that streamers have attempted to keep ad loads lighter in contrast to traditional linear for a better viewing experience and that too could influence the results of ad exposure time share.
As Comscore noted, “a higher share means that an entity accounts for a larger portion of measured advertising exposure, but it does not inherently indicate better or worse performance, advertising effectiveness, or viewer experience.”