45% of Viewing, 20% of Budget
Streaming now accounts for 44.8% of total television viewing in the United States. That means nearly half of all TV watching happens on platforms like Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, Peacock, Tubi, and Paramount+.
Legal advertisers allocate roughly 20% of their budgets to those platforms. In many of the largest markets, the figure is under 15%.
That gap between viewing share and advertising share is not a rounding error. It is a structural misallocation of billions of dollars. This article examines why it exists, which firms are exploiting it, and what the data shows about markets where streaming is still wide open.
Why Legal Advertisers Are Late
Personal injury advertising was built on broadcast television. The industry’s largest firms, Morgan and Morgan, Thomas J. Henry, Jim Adler, Morris Bart, Farah and Farah, all established their brands through local TV and radio over the past 20 to 30 years.
Their buying patterns reflect that history. Annual broadcast contracts, station relationships, and frequency targets create structural inertia. The CTV vs broadcast comparison highlights why shifting even 10% of a multi-million dollar broadcast budget requires renegotiating deals, changing creative workflows, and learning new measurement systems. Our guide on why law firms are shifting to CTV covers the forces accelerating that transition.
The result shows up in our data. Across 210 tracked markets, broadcast television captures 55 to 65% of total legal ad spend. Radio takes 15 to 25%. CTV/streaming gets the remainder.
AdImpact’s national data adds context. Between Q1 2023 and Q4 2025, legal services maintained a 6.11% share of all local broadcast impressions. The corresponding CTV share was 2.86%, growing steadily but still less than half the broadcast figure.
The Markets Where Streaming Is Being Used Right
Three markets in our data show what legal advertising looks like when firms commit to streaming.
Atlanta (48% CTV). The national leader. Seven of the top 10 advertisers allocate more than 50% of their budgets to streaming. $6.1 million monthly flows through CTV platforms. Dozier Law Firm runs 81.3% streaming. Thompson Law runs 68.7%. This isn’t experimentation. This is a market that has structurally shifted.
Los Angeles (33% CTV). The nation’s largest legal ad market at $22.5 million monthly, with an estimated $7.4 million going to streaming. Jacoby and Meyers leads with 47% streaming allocation. The market’s size means even 33% CTV allocation produces massive absolute streaming spend.
Las Vegas (33% CTV). A mid-size market where YouTube App ad spend ($816,000) outpaces every broadcast station except FOX. Firms like Dimopoulos Injury and Golightly run 100% CTV, proving that streaming-only strategies can work in the right market.
These markets share a common thread: firms that treat streaming as a primary channel, not a line item to test for one quarter.
The Markets Where It Is Not
Ten of 210 tracked markets allocate less than 15% of legal ad spend to streaming. These are not small markets.
| Market | CTV % | Monthly Spend | Dominant Firm | Their CTV % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Washington DC | 3% | $2.6M | Morgan & Morgan (31%) | Low |
| Boston | 9% | $3.2M | Morgan & Morgan (30%) | Low |
| Dallas | 10% | $6.9M | Thomas J. Henry (35%) | 8.5% |
| New York | 11% | $14.5M | Morgan & Morgan (13%) | Low |
| San Francisco | 12% | $4.7M | Sweet James (17%) | Low |
| Philadelphia | 12% | $4.6M | Morgan & Morgan (21%) | Low |
Every one of these markets has a dominant advertiser whose strategy is overwhelmingly broadcast. Thomas J. Henry puts 91.5% of his Dallas budget into broadcast and radio. Morgan and Morgan’s strongest market shares (Boston 30%, DC 31%, Philadelphia 21%) coincide with their most traditional channel allocations.
The dominant firms set the pace. When the market leader runs broadcast, agencies recommend broadcast. Competitors match the channel mix of the leader. The streaming gap perpetuates itself.
The Firms Breaking the Pattern
In every low-adoption market, at least one firm has figured it out.
Thompson Law in Dallas. While Thomas J. Henry spends $1.9 million monthly on broadcast, Thompson Law allocates 38.3% of their $463,000 budget to streaming. They cannot outspend Henry on TV. They can outspend him on CTV.
Spear Greenfield in Philadelphia. In a market where Morgan and Morgan dominates at 21.4% share, Spear Greenfield runs 32% streaming. They are building audience on the channel Morgan uses least.
The San Francisco paradox. The tech capital of the world allocates just 12% of its legal ad spend to streaming. Sweet James and Law Brothers dominate broadcast while a digital-native audience streams content on every device in the house. The disconnect between audience behavior and advertiser allocation has no clearer example.
What Streaming TV Advertising Costs for Law Firms
The cost structure is straightforward.
| Component | Range |
|---|---|
| CPM (programmatic) | $20–$40 |
| CPM (premium placement) | $40–$60+ |
| Monthly minimum (single DMA) | $5,000–$25,000 |
| Completion rate | 90–96% |
| Attribution | Measurable to household |
For a firm spending $200,000 monthly on broadcast in a market like Dallas, shifting $30,000 to streaming would capture meaningful CTV frequency with minimal broadcast impact. That $30,000 on streaming in Dallas, where total CTV spend is $665,000 monthly, would make that firm one of the larger CTV advertisers in the market.
The math changes when you think about share of channel rather than share of total market. Owning 5% of a $665,000 CTV channel costs $33,000. Owning 5% of a $3.8 million broadcast channel costs $190,000. The cost to be a meaningful presence on streaming is a fraction of what broadcast requires. That math should change how you think about building your advertising budget.
The Quarterly Trend: Acceleration
AdImpact tracks legal services CTV impression share by quarter.
| Quarter | Legal Services CTV Share |
|---|---|
| Q1 2023 | 2.77% |
| Q2 2023 | 2.75% |
| Q3 2023 | 2.96% |
| Q4 2023 | 2.77% |
| Q1 2024 | 3.37% |
| Q2 2024 | 2.85% |
| Q3 2024 | 2.51% |
| Q4 2024 | 2.04% |
| Q1 2025 | 2.44% |
| Q2 2025 | 2.59% |
| Q3 2025 | 3.00% |
| Q4 2025 | 3.53% |
Q4 2025 at 3.53% is the highest quarter on record. The trend line shows legal advertisers entering CTV in increasing numbers, with each Q4 (when political advertising raises broadcast CPMs) often accelerating the shift.
How to Stop Getting It Wrong
The mistake most firms make is treating streaming as an add-on. They allocate 5 to 10% of their budget to CTV, run it for a quarter, see modest results, and conclude that streaming doesn’t work for legal advertising.
The data shows the opposite. The firms seeing results on streaming are the ones treating it as a primary channel. Dozier at 81%, Thompson at 69%, Montlick at 55%. These aren’t test budgets. These are strategic commitments.
Three principles separate the firms using streaming well from those wasting money on it.
Allocate enough for frequency. Below three to six exposures per household per month, recall drops sharply. A $5,000 monthly CTV budget in a major DMA may produce impressions but not the frequency required for brand recall. Budget for frequency, not just reach.
Match the market opportunity. In Atlanta at 48% CTV, the competitive landscape on streaming is intense. In Dallas at 10%, it is wide open. The same budget produces dramatically different competitive positioning depending on the market’s CTV adoption level.
Measure what streaming actually delivers. CTV provides household-level attribution that broadcast cannot match. Track website visits, phone calls, and intake forms tied to streaming impressions. The ROI data by channel exists. Use it.
The channel nobody uses right is the channel growing faster than any other in legal advertising. The firms that treat it as a primary strategy, not an experiment, are the ones building audience while their competitors watch from the broadcast sideline.
References
- AdImpact. "Legal Advertising Trends Report, Q1 2026." 2026.
- Nielsen. "Streaming Shatters Multiple Records in December 2025 with 47.5% of TV Viewing." 2026.
- IAB. "2025 Digital Video Ad Spend and Strategy Report." 2025.
- MNTN. "The Verdict Is In: CTV Is the Future of Law Firm Advertising." 2025.
- ATRA. "Legal Services Advertising Report, 2020-2024." 2025.