Streaming television is the digital distribution of television media content, such as series and films, over Internet-based streaming media platforms. In contrast to over-the-air, cable, and satellite transmissions, or IPTV service, streaming television is provided as over-the-top media (OTT). Television content includes productions made by or for OTT services, and acquired by them with licensing agreements. The length of a streaming television series episode can be anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes or longer. Similar to the running time of theatrical films, the average length of a film licensed or produced by a streaming platform is 90 to 120 minutes.
Streaming television is available via paid subscription or as free ad-supported service. By 2023, streaming television represented 38% of global TV viewing with 1.8 billion subscriptions to streaming platforms. In 2024, streaming television became "the dominant form of TV viewing" in the United States. It surpassed cable and network television viewing in 2025. Of the top streaming platforms, Netflix had over 325 million subscribers as of December 2025, making it the most popular global streaming television service.
History
1990s Up until the 1990s, it was not thought possible that a television show could be squeezed into the limited telecommunication bandwidth of a copper telephone cable to provide a streaming service of acceptable quality, as the required bandwidth of a digital television signal was (in the mid-1990s perceived to be) around 200Mbit/s, which was 2,000 times greater than the bandwidth of a speech signal over a copper telephone wire.
Streaming services started as a result of two major technological developments: MPEG (motion-compensated DCT) video compression and asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) data communication. By the year 2000, a television broadcast could be compressed to 2Mbit/s, but most consumers still had little opportunity to obtain greater than 1Mbit/s connection speeds.
The first worldwide live-streaming event was a radio live broadcast of a baseball game between the Seattle Mariners and the New York Yankees streamed by ESPN SportsZone on September 5, 1995.
2000s The mid-2000s were the beginning of television programs becoming available via the Internet. In November 2003, Angelos Diamantoulakis launched the streaming television service TVonline, making it the world's first television station to produce and broadcast content exclusively over the internet via web page. The online video platform site YouTube was launched in early 2005, allowing users to share illegally posted television programs. YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim said the inspiration for YouTube first came from Janet Jackson's role in the 2004 Super Bowl incident, when her breast was exposed during her performance, and later from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Karim could not easily find video clips of either event online, which led to the idea of a video sharing site. Apple's iTunes service also began offering select television programs and series in 2005, available for download after direct payment.
During the mid-2000s, the streaming media was based on UDP, whereas the basis of the majority of the Internet was HTTP and content delivery networks (CDNs). In 2007, HTTP-based adaptive streaming was introduced by Move Networks. This new technology would be a significant change for the industry. One year later the introduction of HTTP-based adaptive streaming, many companies such as Microsoft and Netflix developed their streaming technology. In 2009, Apple launched HTTP Live Streaming (HLS).
Television networks and other independent services began creating sites where shows and programs could be streamed online. Amazon Prime Video began in the United States as Amazon Unbox in 2006 (but did not launch worldwide until 2016)."Amazon - Press Room - Press Release". phx.corporate-ir.net. Retrieved 2017-12-05. Netflix, a website originally created for DVD rentals and sales, began providing streaming content in 2007."About Netflix". Netflix Media Center. Retrieved 2017-12-05. The first-generation Apple TV was released in 2007."How Apple's iTV Media Strategy Works". www.roughlydrafted.com. Retrieved 2017-12-05. In 2008 Hulu, owned by NBC and Fox, was launched, followed by tv.com in 2009, owned by CBS.
Digital media players also began to become available to the public during this time. In 2008, the first generation Roku streaming device was announced."Inside The Tech Of The Netflix Player With Roku | HotHardware". HotHardware. HotHardware. Retrieved 2017-12-05. These digital media players have continued to be updated and new generations released.
In 2008, the International Academy of Web Television, headquartered in Los Angeles, formed in order to organize and support television actors, authors, executives, and producers in streaming television and web series. The organization also administers the selection of winners for the Streamy Awards. In 2009, the Los Angeles Web Series Festival was founded. Several other festivals and award shows have been dedicated solely to web content, including the Indie Series Awards and the Vancouver Web Series Festival.
2010s in 2010, Adobe launched HTTP Dynamic Streaming (HDS). In addition, HTTP-based adaptive streaming was chosen for important streaming events such as Roland Garros, Wimbledon, Vancouver and London Olympic Games, and many others and on premium on-demand services (Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, etc.).
The increase in streaming services required a new standardization, therefore in 2012, with the contributions of Apple, Netflix, Microsoft, and other companies, Dynamic Adaptive Streaming, known as MPEG-DASH, was published as the new HTTP-based adaptive streaming standard.
Smart TVs took over the television market after 2010 and continue to partner with new providers to bring streaming video to even more users. As of 2015, smart TVs are the only type of middle to high-end television being produced. Amazon's version of a digital media player, Amazon Fire TV, was not offered to the public until 2014.Horn, Leslie. "Fire TV: Everything You Need to Know About Amazon's $100 Streaming Box". Gizmodo. Retrieved 2017-12-05.
Access to television programming has evolved from computer and television access to include mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers. Corresponding apps for mobile devices started to become available via app stores in 2008, but they grew in popularity in the 2010s with the rapid deployment of LTE cellular networks. These apps enable users to stream television content on mobile devices that support them.
In 2013, in response to the shifting of the soap opera All My Children from broadcast to streaming television, a new category for "Fantastic web-only series" in the Daytime Emmy Awards was created. That year, Netflix made history with the first Primetime Emmy Award nominations for a streaming television series at the 65th Primetime Emmy Awards, for Arrested Development, Hemlock Grove, and House of Cards. Hulu earned the first Emmy win for Outstanding Drama Series, for The Handmaid's Tale at the 69th Primetime Emmy Awards in 2017.
Traditional cable and satellite television providers began to offer streaming services. In 2012, British broadcaster Sky launched Now streaming service in the United Kingdom. Sling TV was unveiled by Dish Network in January 2015.Joshua Brustein (January 5, 2015). "Dish's New Sling TV Service Could Free You From Cable". Bloomberg Businessweek. Bloomberg LP. Retrieved January 12, 2015. Cable company Comcast announced an HBO plus broadcast TV package at a price discounted from basic broadband plus basic cable in July 2015. DirecTV launched their streaming service, DirecTV Stream, in 2016.Spangler, Todd (2016-11-18). "AT&T Sets DirecTV Now Launch Event for Nov. 28". Variety. Retrieved 2017-12-05. In 2017, YouTube launched YouTube TV, a streaming service that allows users to watch live television programs from popular cable or network channels, and record shows to stream anywhere, anytime."YouTube TV - Watch & DVR Live Sports, Shows & News". YouTube TV - Watch & DVR Live Sports, Shows & News. Retrieved 2017-12-05.
By the end 2015, Netflix had almost 75 million world-wide subscribers. In 2017, 28% of US adults cited streaming services as their main means for watching television, and 61% of those ages 18 to 29 cited it as their main method.
2020s
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic had a strong impact in the television streaming business with the lifestyle changes such as staying at home and lockdowns.
By 2024, Netflix had become the world's largest streaming television platform with 260.28 million global subscribers. By the end of 2025, its active subscribers total had grown to over 325 million.
As of May 2025, Nielsen reported that streaming represented 44.8% of all television viewing, compared to 44.2% for broadcast and cable combined.
Technology
The Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV (HbbTV) consortium of industry companies (such as SES, Humax, Philips, and ANT Software) is currently promoting and establishing an open European standard for hybrid set-top boxes for the reception of broadcast and broadband digital television and multimedia applications with a single-user interface.
BBC iPlayer originally incorporated peer-to-peer streaming, moved towards centralized distribution for their video streaming services. BBC executive Anthony Rose cited network performance as an important factor in the decision, as well as consumers being unhappy with their own network bandwidth being used for transmitting content to other viewers. CNet interview with iPlayer boss Anthony Rose, mostly on iPlayer 3.0 Samsung TV has also announced their plans to provide streaming options including 3D Video on Demand through their Explore 3D service.Samsung To Do 3D VOD Streaming, May 24, 2011
Access control Some streaming services incorporate digital rights management. The W3C made the controversial decision to adopt Encrypted Media Extensions due in large part to motivations to provide copy protection for streaming content. Sky Go has software that is provided by Microsoft to prevent content being copied.
Additionally, BBC iPlayer makes use of a parental control system giving users the option to "lock" content, requiring a password to access it. The goal of these systems is to enable parents to keep children from viewing sexually themed, violent, or otherwise age-inappropriate material. Flagging systems can be used to warn a user that content may be certified or that it is intended for viewing post-watershed. Honour systems are also used where users are asked for their dates of birth or age to verify if they are able to view certain content.
Streaming quality
Streaming quality is the quality of image and audio transmission from the servers of the distributor to the user's screen. Also, Streaming resolution helps to measure the size of the streaming quality of video pixels. High-definition video (720p+) and later standards require higher bandwidth and faster connection speeds than previous standards, because they carry higher spatial resolution image content. In addition, transmission packet loss and latency caused by network impairments and insufficient bandwidth degrade replay quality. Decoding errors may manifest themselves with video breakup and macro blocks. The generally accepted download rate for streaming high-definition (1080p) video encoded in AVC is 6000 kbit/s, whereas UHD requires upwards of 16,000 kbit/s.