For years, we’ve been told that linear television is declining. Streaming services would render traditional broadcasting obsolete, the story went, as viewers abandoned scheduled programming for the freedom of on demand content.
Yet globally, millions of people are still tuning in to broadcast live TV, and in impressive numbers.
Despite the decline in overall viewing time, certain markets have proven remarkably resilient to the streaming revolution. Italy, Japan and Brazil stand out particularly, each maintaining close to 3 hours and 30 minutes of daily linear viewing per individual in 2025.
Why, in an era of infinite choice, does linear TV remains so stubbornly alive? What sustains this loyalty to linear television in an era of infinite choice and on-demand convenience? The answer lies in a combination of public broadcaster strength, cultural tradition and the irreplaceable nature of shared, live experiences.
The power of public broadcasters and tradition
In both Japan and Italy for example, the strength of public broadcasters remains a defining factor. These countries rely on powerful public broadcasting groups capable of drawing wide audiences through a mix of quality programming and cultural resonance.
Remarkably, their strongest broadcasts are long-standing live entertainment events that have become national institutions. Japan’s NHK Red and White Song Contest and Italy’s Sanremo Festival have both been running for more than 75 years. These aren’t merely television programmes, they’re cultural touchstones that generations have grown up watching together.
In Italy, the dominance of RAI extends far beyond these flagship events. Looking at the top 10 programmes beyond sports, they all air on RAI Uno. The group’s three main channels consistently rank within the top five nationally. RAI’s programming strategy centres on entertainment formats that bring families together: The Voice (including Kids and Senior editions), Dancing with the Stars, and Your Face Sounds Familiar.
The broadcaster even launched the Italian version of The Masked Singer, which ran for four consecutive seasons. Similarly, in Japan, public channel NHK G dominates the top 10 programmes outside sports, offering a carefully curated mix of event shows, news, and drama series.
Sports: The unrivalled draw
Of course, sports remain one of the key pillars of live television. Glance’s recent Yearly Sport Key Facts 2025 report analysed television sports consumption from September 2024 to August 2025 in 45 markets globally. It revealed unprecedented viewing, including the highest-ever Super Bowl audience and the emergence of women’s sports as a major ratings driver.
American football reached new heights with Super Bowl LIX achieving an all-time record of 126.7 million viewers and 100% market share on FOX in the United States, demonstrating the enduring power of premium live sports content in an increasingly fragmented media landscape.
Women’s sport achieved breakthrough momentum globally, with the UEFA Women’s European Championship securing the number one sporting audience in both Germany and the UK. In France, the Women’s Tour de France nearly doubled its viewership from 1.4 million in 2024 to 2.7 million average viewers in 2025, peaking at 4.4 million viewers with 41% market share on France 2 for the final stage.
Nostalgia, gamification, and the family viewing experience
Beyond sports, entertainment formats play a crucial role in encouraging co-viewing and family togetherness. Over the past 15 years, nostalgia and retro trends have influenced all segments of media, and television naturally reflects this shift.
Gamification in society has also contributed to reviving formats built on luck, physical ability and knowledge. Deal or No Deal, for instance, mirrors the appeal of playing the lottery, while the 2024 UK reboot of Gladiators aligns with a broader cultural move toward performance-driven fitness, where strength and endurance become public spectacles.
Even shows revolving around individual contestants, like Let’s Make a Deal and The Price Is Right, foster a strong ‘big family’ atmosphere in which audience participation and collective excitement are essential. These programmes create moments of shared anticipation that streaming services, with their more solitary viewing experiences, can struggle to replicate.
The scripted dilemma
Scripted series face particular challenges for linear and live viewing, as audiences increasingly make personal, on-demand choices among vast catalogues available. In France, HIP, which aired on the leading French Channel TF1, achieved a live premiere of 5.4 million viewers for its fifth and final season, representing 68% of the episode’s total audience. Looking at the live top 10 rankings for 2025 in France, the list is almost exclusively composed of sports and event programmes, aside from three of the HIP.
In the UK, some of the strongest live performers in the scripted category remain long-running soap operas such as Coronation Street and Emmerdale, where live audiences account for 53% and 58% respectively within the first seven days. Call the Midwife, the top scripted series of 2025, still achieved 50% of its seven-day audience from live viewing.
The irreplaceable value of shared moments
These patterns reveal something fundamental about how we consume television worldwide. Even though we have unprecedented freedom to watch what we want, there remains a powerful draw to experiencing programming as it happens.
Whether it’s the communal thrill of watching elite athletes compete, the anticipation of a live entertainment spectacle, or the satisfaction of being part of a shared cultural moment, linear television continues to fulfil needs that on-demand services cannot fully address.
The resilience of linear TV suggests that reports of its demise have been exaggerated. As long as live, shared and culturally anchored moments continue to structure viewing habits, traditional broadcasting will retain its place in the media landscape.
The future of television isn’t a simple binary between linear and streaming, it’s a more complex ecosystem where both models serve different, but equally valid purposes.
Frédéric Vaulpré is Senior-Vice-President at Glance. For more information visit: glance-mediametrie.com/en
