Published: June 28, 2024

YouTube Leads Streaming and Dominates TV Living Rooms

By Movieguide® Contributor

YouTube is dominating the streaming charts, beating other streamers like Netflix and Hulu, Nielsen reports.

Per Yahoo! Finance, “YouTube — owned by tech giant Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) — is solidifying its position as a dominant force in the streaming sector, according to the latest Nielsen survey. Nielsen’s data reveals that YouTube captured a substantial 9.7% of total viewership among streaming services during the month of May.”

A Yahoo! Finance expert, Alexandra Canal, explained “YouTube is not only taking over your computer screens, but also your living room, television screens as well.”

According to a pie chart from Nielsen, “Just among streamers…[YouTube’s] total viewership was close to 25% of overall market share and media companies are certainly starting to take notice here even with my conversations among different executives, analysts, YouTube is consistently brought up as a top competitor,” Yahoo! reported.

“We’re not talking about your mobile phone, your laptop, that I’m sure you see your kids using all the time, but on the biggest screen in the house, the TV. Every [media] executive has to be paying attention,” said Rich Greenfield, a LightShed media analyst.

In the last three years, YouTube’s reach in the living room has grown 130%, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan revealed last month.

Other major streamers, like Netflix, Prime Video and Disney, aren’t sure if YouTube is on their side or not.

“Some media executives see YouTube as a companion platform to subscription streaming services and cable TV — an unwieldy behemoth of non-narrative, creator-led content with a social media slant that doesn’t really fit the New York-Hollywood nexus of professional media,” CNBC reported. “Others — even at times the same executives — view YouTube as an existential threat to the entertainment industry, stealing viewership from subscription streaming services and, with it, the cultural center of American youth.”

“I do think it snuck up on people that YouTube was as important a presence in people’s lives and people’s viewing experiences not just on the phone but in the living room,” said YouTube’s vice president of Americas, Tara Walpert Levy.

Movieguide® previously reported on YouTube’s reach:

While streaming has long been seen as the disruptor of traditional TV, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan argued that his platform is the real industry shaker in entertainment.

Mohan’s comments came during the annual “Upfronts Week” where networks and platforms pitch to advertisers why they should commission ads on their services. In recent years, however, YouTube has largely used this time to boast about its unprecedented reach.

“We’re redefining what TV looks like, helping creators reach new heights and using AI to expand creativity,” Mohan said. “Creators are drawing audiences on the big screen because they’re the new Hollywood. They have business strategies, writers’ rooms and production teams…Creators are redefining what we think of as ‘TV.’”

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