Thinkbox
YouTube’s chief executive recently said that "YouTube is the new television". I’m not sure he checked with the current television to see whether that is actually the case, but he said it anyway. Fact checking is increasingly unfashionable after all.
Why did he say it?
He said it because, in the US, the TV set has become the “primary device” for watching YouTube (note: YouTube is not the primary thing watched on a TV set in the US; it accounts for 11.1% of TV-set viewing, according to Nielsen’s The Gauge).
What I – and maybe you – would call “devices” (smartphones, tablets, laptops – ie not the TV set) still account for the majority of YouTube use. But if you split all the screens up, the one we don’t tend to carry around with us is now where most YouTube use takes place in the US.
Don’t hate me, but let’s look at some more data – even some decimals, I’m afraid – to put this in context…91.9% of TV-set viewing in the UK is: TV.
In the UK, YouTube is smaller than the US. Barb’s 2024 data shows it accounted for 8.1% of TV-set viewing in the UK (data for all individuals).
So, in 2024, after more than a decade of YouTube being available on TV sets, TV accounted for 91.9% of TV-set viewing in the UK (74.2% broadcasters, 17.5% SVODs, 0.1% AVODs like Samsung TV Plus).
Punchy, then, to claim to be the new television when the current one accounts for more than 90% of viewing.
Now, before LinkedIn lights up with readers “But young people-ing" me, YouTube is, of course, more popular on a TV set for younger audiences.
TV accounts for 83.5% of 16- to 34-year-olds’ TV-set viewing. YouTube is 16.2% and the other 0.3% is with other video sharing services, like Twitch.
YouTube is easily the dominant video sharing service on the TV set but, clearly, people overwhelmingly watch the TV to watch TV. We always have, and the data suggests that won’t change any time soon.
YouTube is a brilliant service, part of the fabric of our lives – I don’t know where I’d be without yoga with Adriene. But perspective is needed and outlandish claims should be avoided.
Even if you were going all in on sheer, breathtaking, numberwang scale, and sweeping together all YouTube viewing on any device, it’s still quite a stretch to claim YouTube is the new TV.
If you add YouTube viewing data on devices (from Ipsos Iris) with YouTube viewing on TV sets (from Barb) – which, strictly speaking, I’m told you probably shouldn’t – you get a total of 53 million hours of YouTube watched a day in the UK (adults). This compares with 209 million hours of TV.
What this means in advertising terms is that, across all screens in the UK, TV accounts for 85% of AV advertising time and YouTube is 11.1% (source: Thinkbox Trends in TV 2025).
But size misses the point.
The chief flaw in YouTube’s claim isn’t about quantity, though, it’s about quality and role. People could spend three or four times as much time with YouTube as they do watching TV and YouTube still wouldn’t be TV.
TV is a form of high-quality, highly regulated video content; YouTube is a platform where anyone can upload any form of video content – including TV content.
And this is what’s perhaps more interesting. There is an increasing amount of TV content to watch on YouTube and this will be fuelling some of the growth YouTube is experiencing on TV sets – some of it is people watching TV on the TV set as usual, just via YouTube.
As they diversify, the broadcasters are successfully increasing their focus and reach on YouTube as both a means of content distribution to lighter TV viewers and marketing their content. Reflecting the spread of TV on YouTube, Barb recently announced its plans to start measuring high-quality, TV-like content on YouTube.
If I was in the market for an outlandish claim, I might say TV is taking over YouTube. There’s a grain of truth in that. But we’ve had enough outlandish claims for the moment.
This article was first published in Campaign.