11 MAR 2021

YOUTUBE REACHES 120 MILLION CONNECTED TV VIEWERS IN THE US

The platform accumulated 20% more views than it did in March 2020, with 82.5% of the views deriving from five streaming services. Its financial performance during the fourth quarter last year surged by 36% year-over-year to nearly $7 billion.

11 MAR 2021
Imagen YouTube producirá 40 series originales con foco en el mercado publicitario

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YouTube revealed that its live streaming service, YouTube TV has been streamed by more than 120 million Americans on their TVs in December. The milestone was announced by Neal Mohan, YouTube’s Chief Product Officer in a blog post earlier this week.“There’s another interesting viewing behavior emerging,” Mohan added. “A new generation of viewers chooses to watch YouTube primarily on the TV screen: Also in December, over a quarter of logged-in YouTube CTV viewers in the U.S. watched content almost exclusively on the TV screen.”

The figure indicates a 20% spike from views garnered in March 2020, thanks in great part to the increasing number of people staying home amid the pandemic. The platform's financial performance during the fourth quarter last year surged by 36% year-over-year to nearly $7 billion.

The milestone has also driven Youtube to seek additional advertising partners. The platform is pushing its CTV to reach ahead of the 2021-22 U.S. TV upfront buying season where advertisers will be able to measure their YouTube connected-TV campaigns through Nielsen’s Digital Ad Ratings and Total Ad Ratings.

Mohan also pointed to a stat from Comscore, showing 82.5% of connected-TV views stem from five streaming services; Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Hulu, YouTube, and Netflix. Only two of the platforms are ad-based. He admits that the streaming surge has presented, both pros and cons for advertisers, including making it tougher to track an ad’s impact. YouTube is working to address those challenges.“Streaming gives advertisers more places to reach those customers who have been abandoning TV for streaming platforms, including hard-to-reach viewers,” Mohan said. 

Mohan also cited a February 2020 study YouTube commissioned from research firm Talk Shoppe, which found 70% of YouTube viewers say they bought a product as the result of seeing the brand on YouTube. The video platform is testing a new integrated shopping experience that will allow viewers to make purchases directly on YouTube.

There’s another interesting viewing behavior emerging. A new generation of viewers chooses to watch YouTube primarily on the TV screen: Also in December, over a quarter of logged-in YouTube CTV viewers in the U.S. watched content almost exclusively on the TV screen.” Neal Mohan Chief Product Officer, Youtube