Here’s a surprising fact: Daily, people watch a collective 1B+ hours of YouTube content on their TVs.
YouTube CEO Neal Mohan revealed that TVs are now the primary device US viewers use to watch the platform’s content, including podcasts, livestreams, YouTube Shorts, sports, and TV programming accessible to its 8m+ YouTube TV subscribers.
YouTube also dominates as the most-watched streaming platform, surpassing even Netflix.
People began watching YouTube on TVs more during the pandemic, and the trend has continued, per The New York Times.
And then there’s the creators
While big streamers spend money on original content, YouTube’s creators spend their own money to produce content. Videos that get few views don’t lose the company money, but it takes a 45% cut of those that generate ad revenue.
Plus, content has vastly improved from YouTube’s early days, with modern creators producing talk shows, shorts, episodic content, and even feature-length films. Some even prefer YouTube to traditional entertainment pipelines, as it’s faster and gives them more control.
YouTube is adding and/or expanding several creator tools, including autodubbing in multiple languages, podcast discovery and monetization aids, and AI that can help with video ideas, titles, and thumbnails.
It’s also adding a “second screen experience” where users can interact with the videos they’re watching on TV with their phone — e.g., leaving comments or making purchases — and ad formats for (our new always-on) TVs, like pause ads and QR codes.
Meanwhile, rival Netflix is reportedly pursuing deals with podcasters, per Business Insider, including tapping them for talk shows.
That may appeal to the 89% of weekly Gen Z podcast listeners who watch or listen to podcasts with video content, but Netflix has competition from… Oh, YouTube again — it’s also the most-used service for podcasts in the US.
Fun fact: Some YouTube watchers are animals who enjoy compilations of birds. Unfortunately, there is no data on cat viewership.