Viewers spent 36% of their time with video on streaming last month, and YouTube accounted for 8.6% of total time spent with video, as reported by Nielsen in its latest study. In 2024, U.S. viewers will spend 36 minutes daily with YouTube, per Nielsen's forecast, just above Netflix at 34 minutes but far above the 9 minutes with Disney+.
Global viewers now watch over 1 billion hours of YouTube on their TVs daily. YouTube also said on its blog that the number of "top" creators who spend most of their viewing time on TVs grew by 400%. YouTube's effort to bolster Shorts' viewership by bringing it to TV screens shows results: From January to September 2023, YouTube Shorts' TV views more than doubled. That strong viewership means the company is in a powerful position to reshape the streaming measurement and advertising processes according to its own needs.
Several streaming services and networks came together in 2023 to form the Joint Industry Committee (JIC), an industry group making an effort to standardize streaming advertising amid the growing number of measurement companies. YouTube and Nielsen have repeatedly declined to join the organization due to "disagreements over how 'premium' content should be treated versus user-generated content." However, the JIC and YouTube have found a more recent middle ground via GroupM.