YouTube is putting its dominance on TV screens into perspective. The video platform revealed that it continues to get one billion hours of daily watch time on TV screens, but it is also hiking the price of its cable-like package YouTube TV up to $82.99 per month.
The latest raft of TV screen data reveals that sports viewership is up 30% for YouTube on TV (thanks, NFL Sunday Ticket), podcast consumption on living room devices has reached 400 million hours per month (thanks, creators), and uploads in 4K quality are up 35% year-over-year. Why choose 4K? For starters, a high standard of video quality is needed to power all those vivid landscape streams that are so popular right now.
YouTube’s update noted that creators are seeing a larger portion of their viewership come from TVs and related devices. Michelle Khare, for example, got more than 40% of her views from the living room for a recent episode of her show Challenge Accepted.
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Some creators, like Khare, are capable of producing TV-quality content. For those who would rather comment on outstanding shows rather than create them, YouTube is piloting a feature called Watch With, which gives users space to provide live commentary on games and events. After being relegated to the “second screen” for years, YouTube is now turning TV into the second screen. My, how things have changed.
But even as YouTube eats up more than 10% of all watch time on TVs, it is dealing with the same forces that have handicapped streamers like Disney+ and Paramount+. The price of YouTube TV is now more than twice as high as it was when the service launched in 2017. YouTube blamed the hike on the “rising cost of content.”
Two lessons to take away from that price increase: One, not even YouTube is immune to the turmoil that has hit the streaming industry in recent years. And two, YouTube TV and YouTube on TVs should really be thought of as separate entities. Though they may have some overlap (i.e. with their relaxing channels), one is growing fast while the other gets more expensive.
