All that means is more ad sales. For YT, that’s grrrrrreat. For those selling ads, not so much. But to me, this is no different than people buying ads on broadcast at 3am.
Yeah, this is where my money is on the watch time. I've also seen things like doctor's office waiting rooms running through a curated playlist endlessly.
Not to mention people falling asleep means that all ads will play unskipped, regardless of length. That means they have data that non-zero amounts of people are watching the whole of the extremely long skippable ads that get placed (more than once I've seen 90+ minute ads appear).
Another key one - more TV-length, high production value content on YouTube. The platform doesn't have 3 minute home recordings anymore. Videos by top creators nowadays rival budgets of major TV shows and movies.
Also, you can watch YouTube on your TV and then fiddle around on your phone without being left with a floating window that both obscures your other content and is too small to see some details in the video.
Think that's more to the point. Where people watch YouTube on TV, instead of traditional channels or cable, and they are free to screw around on their smartphones. There is no telling what people are actually paying attention to, because it seems many are just running multiple devices for the sake of it. Devices are always on, then used or watched whenever something comes to mind or catches their attention.
This feels more significant than I'd expect it to? We are dominated by reporting about how our phones are growing to define our interactions with media. To have a trend that is bucking that is surprising.
Terrible headline - the article says nothing about users. It does not link to Youtubes finding that TV is overtaking mobile. That news is here, and it's by WATCH TIME, not user count as claimed. https://blog.youtube/inside-youtube/our-big-bets-for-2025/
I think TV>Mobile for watch time is less surprising because of the nature of content you'd watch on the TV (longer form, background stuff).
User count would be surprising. And this is from someone who primarily uses their TV for Youtube.
- There are more mobile devices than TVs. A family of four may have 1 or 2 TVs but they have 4+ phones/tablets. Similarly, you need another phone to accomodate another viewer, whereas you do not need another TV.
- TV accounts are often shared so even if you had multiple people using the TV there is a fair chance it would be squashed to 1 user
- Youtube content is increasingly short form which fits better with mobile than sitting down on the couch. All Youtube shorts are designed to be consumed on the phone, for example.
- You always have your phone with you. You're usually only around your TV a handful of hours a day.
- You are often getting funneled to YouTube via a link from somewhere else on your phone. Reddit, X, group text, etc. No chance of that while using your TV for something else.
Fair points. I'm still surprised at how strong television viewership remains, but my guess is that is poor priors on my part?
Specifically to youtube, I am also a bit surprised at it being used heavily on televisions. It is not a pleasant experience there. I have a hard time on phone, but at least there the popup keyboard is a bit more usable.
Granted, saying that, it occurs to me that i don't actually know the usage of youtube for videos. Short form content makes sense. You just keep flipping to the next of somewhat related content. I suppose news consumption is similar? We have turned news content into short form videos?
I wouldn't say this is a sign of declining mobile usage, but rather that people have YouTube videos playing constantly on the TV while they're scrolling around on their phone.
This is really just part of the switch from broadcast/cable to internet-native media. It's very noticeable when you watch terrestrial TV how many adverts are clearly targeted at the over-65s, the market is literally dying out.
People still have televisions and now most come with embedded android and YouTube. I don’t find this surprising that people are leaving cable and using internet streaming for their “tv consumption”.
I wonder what the actual numbers are, especially considering PC viewers.
My guess is that it's something like 15% on mobile, 16% on TV, and 69% on desktop/laptop etc.
At least if you consider played minutes. I know many people watch short clips etc. on their phone, but the sheer amount of people watching let's plays while working, or streaming lo-fi music while coding is probably immense compared to that
Is that something people who aren't streamers actually do? I don't think I've seen that in person, ever, but then maybe I'm not the most social creature out there so might just be my bubble.
Personally, I only watch YouTube on the TV. When I'm on the computer I'm either working, gaming or reading, the phone only gets used for phone/texting and social media while in the bathroom, and the TV is basically for normal TV/YouTube/TV shows/movies.
yeah, don't know, it was just an example. People stream YouTube while doing other things (playing, working, coding) all the time. I didn't want to put too much focus on the "Let's Play" part, it was the first thing that came to my mind :)
We have a handful of coders in our company and it's rare to enter their offices and not see something playing on the second screen.
yeah that's why I think the actual numbers would be interesting. Are there more kids being fed YouTube on a tablet, or developers/students listening to lo-fi while coding/learning/writing essays :)
This feels like an AI-written article. The name on the byline, Sarah Fielding, has posted 4 articles today already[0]. Her Twitter[1] does not have any posts after Jan 6, and none of her tweets link to Engadget articles. Her bio does list Engadget though (but her personal website does not![2]
This is the only 'evidence' provided, and it definitely doesn't match the claim in the headline.
> Nielsen, a market research company that's been reporting on TV viewing habits for decades, says that YouTube has been the number one service in streaming watch time for the last two years.
Regularly watching YouTube on Apple TV, but.. does it play ads more frequently compared to on desktop OS? (makes sense, since context switching to another form of entertainment in another tab doesn't exist there - still, I wish it would be en par)
I’m not sure if the amount of ads is different, but the quality of ads is definitely different.
The ads on TV are “skippable” in the sense that you watch 2 minutes of ads, and then in the last 10 seconds, you can skip to the end.
Any time I use my TV for YouTube now, I just connect my laptop to the TV so I don’t have to deal with those insane ads.
It’s extremely clear that YouTube is trying to maximize ad watch time, while keeping the acknowledgment by the user that they watched the ad, by acknowledging they’re paying attention enough to press “Skip”
If you’re not using a blocker on desktopOS, then probably about the same. Unless YT knows your on the couch and much less likely to switch away so they make loner ad blocks for TV than desktops??? I could see them playing with this kind of logic, but I have no idea if they do anything like that
I pay for YouTube premium now so I haven’t experienced this in some time but I did notice that YouTube would load its longest ads (I.e. Ads that are 1hr+ in length) late at night, around the time I would tend to fall asleep on the couch watching YouTube. I’m sure a PM out there is proud of coming up with this
Another perspective, based on the list of most watched youtube videos [1] - a lot of parents just let it run on the TV for their kids/babies. I used to do it for a while, as well as other parents I knew.
For privacy reasons I would strongly suggest only using an external HDMI device for streaming (and turning off your TV's internet connection), and at that point you can use anything you want and aren't limited to the apps on your TV.
I wonder how similar is the TV user experience and the content that gets watched there - to the desktop/mobile user experience and content. Is anyone here using YouTube in both contexts?
Personally I watch on my laptop or iPhone; I usually look at reviews or short tutorials, I often fast forward, stop mid clip, or switch to another window - which is also why I don't watch YouTube on a TV at all.
I use YouTube in 3 contexts, mobile, laptop and TV. Since the remote slows down my inputs the most I watch longer content (e.g 20 minute or longer videos) on TV. I do notice that YouTube plays longer ads, somewhere around a minute’s worth, on TV. They likely realized that consumers are used to putting up with long commercial breaks in this medium.
I also use it for TV-equivalent live streams. The Eurovision song contest has recently started streaming most of the national-level pre-contests on its youtube channel, which is considerably easier than trying to juggle fifty different national broadcaster sites which are not in English and may be geolocked.
TV experience is vastly inferior to mobile. If you watch YouTube on Apple TV, they definitely make it known you're a second class citizen. The app is clunky, slow and the video player isn't the easiest to scrub (especially if you want to navigate "chapters"). Also it's baffling how you can't use YouTube as a music app with repeat/shuffle controls even though they have a dedicated "Music" section.
Readit News
- Bigger screens are more enjoyable
- Much lesser strain on hands compared to holding a phone means longer periods of watching
- More friction in switching apps on a TV compared to a phone and unless you are casting, much smaller selection of apps
- Fewer distractions like notifications on a phone
- Sofas are comfy; also, autoplay can keep going even if you fall asleep thus skewing the numbers
Make sense in this world.
(people who use youtube as a sleep aid - don't you get woken up by ads?)
I suspect it does (not least because I know I've uploaded a few) but you're going to have to search hard to find them.
(Although I guess that brings up the "if you can't find them, do they even really exist outside of the uploader?" question.)
I think TV>Mobile for watch time is less surprising because of the nature of content you'd watch on the TV (longer form, background stuff).
User count would be surprising. And this is from someone who primarily uses their TV for Youtube.
- There are more mobile devices than TVs. A family of four may have 1 or 2 TVs but they have 4+ phones/tablets. Similarly, you need another phone to accomodate another viewer, whereas you do not need another TV.
- TV accounts are often shared so even if you had multiple people using the TV there is a fair chance it would be squashed to 1 user
- Youtube content is increasingly short form which fits better with mobile than sitting down on the couch. All Youtube shorts are designed to be consumed on the phone, for example.
- You always have your phone with you. You're usually only around your TV a handful of hours a day.
- You are often getting funneled to YouTube via a link from somewhere else on your phone. Reddit, X, group text, etc. No chance of that while using your TV for something else.
Specifically to youtube, I am also a bit surprised at it being used heavily on televisions. It is not a pleasant experience there. I have a hard time on phone, but at least there the popup keyboard is a bit more usable.
Granted, saying that, it occurs to me that i don't actually know the usage of youtube for videos. Short form content makes sense. You just keep flipping to the next of somewhat related content. I suppose news consumption is similar? We have turned news content into short form videos?
Or just phones are small screens and people have bad eyes and big TVs. It’s easy to send content from a phone or iPad to a tv these days.
Demographics, and low friction technology. And there is good content on YouTube for anyone and everyone
At least ads on kids channels were largely for cereals. Which... also feels weird. Who needs advertising to care to eat Cheerios?
My guess is that it's something like 15% on mobile, 16% on TV, and 69% on desktop/laptop etc. At least if you consider played minutes. I know many people watch short clips etc. on their phone, but the sheer amount of people watching let's plays while working, or streaming lo-fi music while coding is probably immense compared to that
Is that something people who aren't streamers actually do? I don't think I've seen that in person, ever, but then maybe I'm not the most social creature out there so might just be my bubble.
Personally, I only watch YouTube on the TV. When I'm on the computer I'm either working, gaming or reading, the phone only gets used for phone/texting and social media while in the bathroom, and the TV is basically for normal TV/YouTube/TV shows/movies.
We have a handful of coders in our company and it's rare to enter their offices and not see something playing on the second screen.
In any case, what numbers would you assume?
This is the only 'evidence' provided, and it definitely doesn't match the claim in the headline.
> Nielsen, a market research company that's been reporting on TV viewing habits for decades, says that YouTube has been the number one service in streaming watch time for the last two years.
[0]https://www.engadget.com/about/editors/sarah-fielding-01/
[1]https://x.com/sarahfielding_?lang=en
[2]https://www.sarahpfielding.com/
Any time I use my TV for YouTube now, I just connect my laptop to the TV so I don’t have to deal with those insane ads.
It’s extremely clear that YouTube is trying to maximize ad watch time, while keeping the acknowledgment by the user that they watched the ad, by acknowledging they’re paying attention enough to press “Skip”
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most-viewed_YouTube_vi...
Personally I watch on my laptop or iPhone; I usually look at reviews or short tutorials, I often fast forward, stop mid clip, or switch to another window - which is also why I don't watch YouTube on a TV at all.
And you can't really install ad-blockers to skip / block either.
I also use it for TV-equivalent live streams. The Eurovision song contest has recently started streaming most of the national-level pre-contests on its youtube channel, which is considerably easier than trying to juggle fifty different national broadcaster sites which are not in English and may be geolocked.