Netflix would be the third most viewed “channel”

Every morning, the media publishes very similar headlines regarding television audiences: Antena 3 is the leader, La 1 is rising consistently and Telecinco is praying not to continue collapsing. All of this is measured with audiometers from Fifty5Blue (until known as Kantar Media), which only measures live linear television. That is, leisure choices that leave out an increasingly common option: Netflix, YouTube and other streaming platforms. Habits have changed, but measurements have not, although little by little other variables are beginning to be considered.

New figures. Fifty5Blue itself publishes a monthly report that provides more precise figures. The Cross-Platform View tool combines the traditional audiometer with the Focal Meter, a digital device that the company launched in 2021 and that measures online video consumption on all screens connected to a home network. It only covers the television (not the mobile phone or tablet), but it is a step in a refreshing direction.

The data. Let’s go with the numbers, which El País already highlighted: the Fifty5Blue data for February 2026 show that 78.8% of television consumption in Spanish homes corresponds to linear channels (73% free-to-air, 5.7% paid) and the remaining 21.2% to digital platforms. Within that block, Netflix accounts for 7.1%, YouTube 5.6% and Prime Video 2.7%. The January data was almost identical.

If we cross these figures with the conventional screen share, the classification looks like this in February, adjusted to the real audiences of Netflix and YouTube:

• Antena 3 goes from 12.9% to 10.2%
• 1 drops to 9.7%
• Netflix is ​​in third place with 7.1%
• That is, ahead of Telecinco (6.8%)
• And YouTube is hot on the heels of Mediaset with 5.6%

That is to say, two subscription platforms, one of them free access, compete head to head with historical chains. Below is Prime Video which, in any case, is located just above La 2. It is important to emphasize that we are only talking about consumption on television: if viewing on mobile phones, tablets and computers were added, the shares of Netflix, Prime Video and YouTube would be somewhat higher.

The Youtube moment. YouTube’s fifth position in the Spanish ranking is a very interesting fact. According to the Nielsen Media Distributor Gauge January 2026Google’s platform maintained first place in television consumption in the United States for the eleventh consecutive month, with a 12.5% ​​share compared to the 10.8% registered a year earlier. Disney was second with 11.9%; Netflix, fourth with 8.8%. Between 2023 and early 2025, YouTube’s share on TV in the US grew by 53%, according to Nielsen.

As we have already commented on other occasionsYouTube does not compete with million-dollar production series. Its advantage is that its catalog is infinite, and it is capturing demographics outside the usual television consumption. In Spain, the phenomenon is in an earlier phase than the United States, but the data points in the same direction.

The mystery of streaming. We already pointed out in 2024 that audience data in streaming They continue to be one of the great mysteries of the sector, and the proliferation of different metrics for each platform generates confusion. Netflix was the first to hire Fifty5Blue to provide externally verifiable data, but that model has not spread. There is a certain chaos in the figures provided by the platforms, which cannot be compared with each other, especially when the figures from the most powerful one speak in terms (number of hours of viewing over number of viewers or percentages comparable to the share of the linear ones) that prevent you from placing all the options on the same plane.

For now we have to settle for provisional calculations like those made by Cross-Platform View, and while advertisers continue to go to traditional platforms. However, the renewal of habits and options chosen by viewers is a fact. Audience measurement is going to have to adapt sooner or later to this new normal.

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