In 2025, it’s not new information to say that the rise of the streaming platform, especially Netflix with its binge model, completely upended Hollywood. The industry has undergone a complete transformation since the mid-2010s, but while nearly every corner of the entertainment industry was reshaped by the rise of streaming, few areas were more significantly impacted than broadcast television.
Yet, while the dominant narrative has been one of streaming completely decimating network television and viewers losing interest in network offerings, that’s simply not true. The reality is much more nuanced and complex than that. It’s a reality in which broadcast networks and streamers both offer something the other lacks, and neither can thrive without the other.
Streaming Platforms Completely Upended Hollywood – Especially Linear Television
Linear television – that is, the traditional form of broadcast television delivered over cable or satellite that follows a set release schedule – has really struggled to forge a new identity in the last decade, thanks to a string of historic challenges. First, streaming has taken away significant viewership as audiences become more accustomed to the on-demand model of streaming, as opposed to the linear model.
Then came the COVID pandemic, which halted or delayed production on shows. While it’s bad enough for a movie to be pushed back, with network television’s strict, weekly filming schedules and episodic format, it was a cataclysmic upheaval. Some shows significantly dropped in quality. Others were canceled outright, pilots pulled and left unaired.
Then, of course, came the writers’ and actors’ strikes of 2023, which once again shut down the entertainment industry. For network television, which had already lost more ground to streaming during the COVID pandemic as people sought out the shows they wanted to watch, when they wanted to watch them, the strikes were another blow (albeit necessary).
As such, networks are playing it a lot safer these days, taking fewer risks with the shows they greenlight and greenlighting fewer original shows than ever before. The traditional network pilot season is all but dead, with shows increasingly getting series orders or nothing at all. When they are given series orders, network TV has moved toward shorter, streaming-length seasons rather than the full 20-24-episode count.
You have likely also noticed that there are more reruns now, and that low-budget genres, such as reality TV and game shows, are more numerous than ever before. If new scripted shows are getting greenlit, they’re almost certainly procedurals (usually spinoffs of larger franchises) or sitcoms.
Familiarity is key. It’s harder than ever for original shows to gain traction, which, ironically enough, is exactly why network TV needs streaming.
Broadcast Networks Need Streaming To Survive Now
The great irony of streaming platforms taking audiences away from network shows is that it’s also streaming that is often responsible for delivering new audiences back to them. It’s common practice now for network TV shows to land on streaming after a season or two; some variation of “When will [show] come to streaming?” is a regular Google search query.
The immediate benefit to networks is that, of course, streamers have to pay, sometimes handsomely, for the licensing and rights to put that show on their platform. However, a second, unintended benefit has also been documented: network TV shows often experience what’s called a “streaming bump” when they transition to a streamer.
As network shows are exposed to a much bigger audience, they reap benefits. New viewers find shows for the first time on streaming platforms, become fans, and can be more inclined to tune in for the next season. Former audiences who fell off watching a certain show can be enticed back or reminded of how much they used to love it. And it’s a lot less daunting to jump into a 20-season TV show when you can watch at your convenience on streaming.
Take, for example, Sullivan’s Crossing, the adaptation of Robyn Carr’s books. The romantic drama, a co-production between Canada’s CTV and America’s CW network, had middling success on The CW – enough to get it renewed for a fourth season, but not enough to really thrive, and it certainly hasn’t found the same success as Netflix’s Virgin River, despite that also being a Robyn Carr adaptation.
Yet, the first two seasons were released on Netflix this summer, with season 3 arriving shortly thereafter, and all three seasons of Sullivan’s Crossing immediately rocketed to Netflix’s Top 10 list. What had been a so-so show for The CW was an immediate hit on streaming, where it was suddenly catapulted to the attention of millions of potential viewers discovering it for the first time.
It may seem as though networks are now reduced to asking for handouts and help from the very streaming giants that forced them into this position in the first place. The reality, though, is that this isn’t a one-sided need. While networks are now forced to operate in the world reshaped by streaming, the truth is that streamers may need broadcast networks even more than networks need them.
Streaming Platforms Are Underpinned By Network TV Shows
When one thinks of flagship streaming shows, they tend to think of original series. Netflix has Stranger Things, Amazon has The Boys, Hulu has The Handmaid’s Tale. Those original scripted series and others were what put those streamers on the map as studios capable of producing their own excellent stories, and with significantly larger budgets than network television.
Yet, behind streamers’ marketing budgets for their brand-defining original shows is the dirty little secret: they’re propped up by those very same classic TV shows they license from networks. As networks have already learned, it’s hard for scripted series to catch on, and streamers overextended themselves with original content, leading them to tighten budgets and pull back.
What’s replacing them are classic network TV shows. A report released in 2024 by Parrot Analytics (via Yahoo) revealed that across the major streamers, more than half of their demand was driven by shows originally released on traditional broadcast networks. Indeed, go to Netflix’s Top 10 on any given day, and you’re likely to see at least one network TV show in the ranks.
Even if a network show isn’t in a streamer’s most-watched series for a particular day or week, classic TV shows generate steady, continued viewership. To their credit, networks have ascertained that while original series make bigger splashes, what keeps audiences coming back is comfort and familiarity, which is exactly what their shows offer.
Streaming may have upended the traditional television model, but the past few years have also humbled them. As often happens with first-to-market disruptors, the pendulum has now swung in the other direction. Streamers are learning that there’s a reason traditional network shows have been so successful for so long and are increasingly relying on the value they bring.
That’s why the network vs. streaming framing is somewhat misleading. While they’re in competition, reality has dictated that both need each other to survive. Network is no longer the dominant force in television, but streaming is not without its own struggles. The best future is one in which traditional linear television and on-demand streaming coexist as complementary options, offering audiences the best of each.