YouTube Owns the Living Room: Fastest Growth Is On TV Sets

Streaming Media

Viewing of YouTube is growing fastest on the main household TV with potentially profound implications for broadcasters.
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Speaking at IBC, Neal Mohan, Chief Product Officer at YouTube, revealed that 180 million hours of YouTube is being consumed daily on the TV worldwide. In Europe alone the time spent watching YouTube on TV has grown 45 percent year on year.

“Video and entertainment is being revolutionised by the confluence of hardware, software and content,” he said.

“Living room hardware has finally caught up with the demands of consumers. There is a creative renaissance in content led by TV. But the most important change in broadcast is as a result of software.”

He explained that at a simple level this is about apps enabling consumers to enjoy content on any device.

“Today, it is second nature for people to watch TV on mobile phones: more than 70 percent of YouTube viewing is done on phones. But the fastest growing screen is the large screen in the living room.”

Mohan attributed this to partnerships YouTube had struck with manufacturers, broadcasters and operators like Sky and Virgin to make the app accessible to people. Over a half a billion devices from STBs to gaming consoles carry the YouTube app.

“As the app has become more and more prevalent across devices, users are getting trained to easily find YouTube,” he said. “Now you see the icon there when you launch. My four-year-old can turn on the TV and find the YouTube Kids app. That is the modality kids are used to. So, it’s a combination of the prevalence of the app and changing user behaviour.”

Mohan said YouTube was using machine learning to refine recommendations and deliver a better lean back viewing experience.

He also said it was too early to judge the success – or discuss ambitions for – Google’s just launched SVOD YouTube Premium.

“We are not competitors but long time and deeply invested partners for broadcasters,” he insisted. “We all want great content to be readily available everywhere and to be about a seamless experience based on user context.”