Commentary
Social Media Video: Daily Use Tops Broadcast, Streaming, Gaming
- by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, July 2, 2025
Global social media video content -- on TikTok, YouTube
Shorts, and Instagram Reels, for example -- is now the most-used daily media content -- exceeding broadcast and streaming TV and gaming.
According to a June Ampere Analysis report, 63% of the global online population consumes social media video content on a daily basis.
“While broadcast television offers a range of choices for viewers, algorithmic social media knows what people are likely to want to watch before they do,” according to Sam Nursall, senior analyst, Ampere Analysis.
Ampere also says “swiping” -- finger-like actions by users, especially on mobile devices that enable users to move quickly onto other video content -- is a factor.
Broadcast and streaming daily usage are far behind -- with 47% and 46%, respectively, in daily use, followed by video games (34%) and podcasts (19%). Overall social media daily use, beyond video consumption, continues to have the highest daily usage at 73%.
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Breaking down usage among key audience segments, Gen Zers' (18 to 24 years old) use of social form video continues to be the highest, at 73%.
On the other end of the audience spectrum -- 45- to-54-year-olds and 55- to 64-year-olds -- come in at 58% and 49%, respectively.
Although the average daily overall time use is higher for traditional TV and video platforms (with linear TV channels at one hour/nine minutes and subscription/streaming platforms at 52 minutes) than social media video (45 minutes) --- "social media services are more frequently used on a daily basis, per the initial release," Ampere's Nursall tells Advanced TV Insider.
The most popular media platform for short-form video is YouTube Shorts (78%), followed by Instagram (41%), TikTok (39%), and Facebook (38%).
These results come from a study when respondents were asked whether they use the platform in the past week.
The territories with the highest usage of short-form video are Southeast Asia -- the Philippines at 83%, Thailand (83%), and Indonesia (82%).
The Ampere Analysis survey was produced from a consumer survey of 56,000 internet-using respondents across 30 markets fielded in February 2025.
Wayne Friedman is West Coast Editor of MediaPost. You can reach Wayne at [email protected].
Wayne, in the U.S. "TV"--that's linear and CTV---has a greater reach than social media and leads it among adults--at least--by a wide margin in time spent. Maybe the situation is different in some other countries, or maybe not, I can't say.