U.S. President Donald Trump is taking an active interest in the newly announced Netflix-Warner Bros. deal, stating that he will be involved in the decision on whether or not the merger will come to fruition. Netflix announced the move on Friday, stating that it had agreed to buy Warner Bros. Discover’s TV, film studio and streaming division for $72 billion. Commenting on the topic, Trump said that the concentration of market power “could be a problem”.
According to Nielsen’s The Gauge, a monthly report on TV viewing behavior in the United States, Netflix streaming accounted for 8 percent of all TV viewership in October, which was the second biggest market share among the streaming giants only after YouTube at 12.9 percent. That month, Warner Bros. Discovery’s viewership accounted for 1.3 percent of total viewing. Combined, this would further solidify Netflix’s place among the streaming giant frontrunners.
As the following chart shows, streaming continues to play a leading role in today’s television landscape, having reached a share of 45.7 percent of U.S. TV usage in October 2025, leaving broadcast and cable far behind, at 22.9 percent and 22.2 percent, respectively. Aside from some seasonal fluctuations, streaming’s share of TV viewing has grown steadily since July 2022, when it first surpassed cable TV. In July 2025, it reached a record-high 47.3 percent share of total TV viewing in the U.S., driven partly by new content across platforms such as Netflix’s original series Squid Games, the month’s most watched title at 5.4 billion viewing minutes.
