Neal Mohan says YouTube is the new TV–and creators are the new Hollywood

Neal Mohan is crowning YouTube the king of TV.

In his 2025 letter to creators, the CEO of the internet’s biggest video site pointed out that this year will bring YouTube’s 20th anniversary. And a lot has happened in those two decades–including a major push from YouTube to challenge not only streaming services like Netflix, but also top TV networks.

That push is paying off. YouTube gets over a billion hours of watch time on living room TVs every day, and has been the most-watched streaming service on TVs for two years straight, according to Nielsen.

Now, Mohan reveals, living room TVs are officially the #1 place for people in the U.S. to watch YouTube content. This means that, for the first time in YouTube history, when people are watching videos, they’re more likely to be watching on a TV than on a smartphone, tablet, or computer.

YouTube “is the new television,” Mohan said. (That being said, whether YouTube TV–a separate, pay-to-watch service that doesn’t get as much traffic as YouTube’s core free content–can succeed when it now costs a whopping $82.99 per month remains to be seen, though Mohan did say it’s up to eight million subscribers.)

Creatorpreneurs are going big

The platform itself isn’t the only one taking on the old guard: Creators, he added, “are becoming the startups of Hollywood.”

“Last November, I attended the opening of Alan Chikin Chow’s 10,000 square foot studio in Burbank. It was a bold, fun and colorful space filled with cutting edge equipment that produces incredible entertainment watched by millions around the world,” Mohan wrote. “And this isn’t just happening in Hollywood: Kinigra Deon is building a studio in Birmingham, Alabama, and last November the creators behind channels Mia Plays and Kouman opened their studio in North Vancouver.”

We here at Tubefilter have been tracking these developments, following creators who are opening full-scale production businesses and putting their own full-length movies in theaters. Not every creator wants to end up in Hollywood, but it’s clear that as the $250 billion digital content industry grows more and more powerful, more creators are able to access the sort of production resources that were previously gatekept to big-league studios, and use those resources to build impactful projects and long-lasting creative businesses.

Mohan also pointed out that these entrepreneurial creators are finding ways to make money off YouTube. He said more than 50% of channels earning five figures or more in 2024 made money from sources other than AdSense and YouTube Premium. He noted that affiliate marketing has become a significant source of revenue for these top-earning creators, citing South Korean fashion creator Bora Claire, who got “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in affiliate sales from one video about cashmere cardigans. (Although creators’ collective affiliate earnings may have been greater if Honey wasn’t around

While all this fresh, diverse cash flow is positive for creators, it’s clear YouTube is paying attention to the fact that creators are monetizing their audiences away from its platform. Mohan called attention to Hype and Communities, two recent updates aimed at connecting creators and their fandoms within the YouTube bubble, and pointed out that the number of Channel Memberships went up 40% year over year from 2023 to 2024.

Shifting away from gen AI?

As for what else YouTube plans to introduce in 2025, it’s still on the AI train, but has apparently realized creators have reservations about generative AI. Mohan said YouTube plans to continue investing in its gen AI tools like Dream Screen and Dream Track, but is shifting its primary focus to production support tools that’ll be located within the “Inspiration Tab” on YouTube Studio (which uses YouTube parent Google‘s AI Gemini).

“As impressive as the generative models are, creators tell us they’re most excited about the ways AI can help with their bread-and-butter production. That’s why we’re investing in tools to help them in the everyday work of creation, like coming up with a new video idea, title or thumbnail,” Mohan said.

Basically, YouTube is pivoting similarly to companies like Spotter, which also expanded its original business model (licensing creators’ content in exchange for cash injections for production support) to introduce a suite of AI production pipeline tools.

On top of challenging TV networks and streaming services, Mohan reaffirmed YouTube’s position as a competitor in the podcast space. Spotify has been aggressively pursuing success with video podcasts, but despite that, YouTube has become “the most frequently used service for listening to podcasts in the U.S.,” Mohan said, citing data from Edison Research. (And we certainly know what effect right-wing podcasts had on the latest U.S. election, thanks in part to their audiences on YouTube.)

So, as YouTube heads into its 20th year, it’s the internet’s biggest video platform, is home to some of the most-watched content on TVs around the world, and is the U.S.’s #1 podcast destination. Not a bad run.

“As we embark on our next chapter, we’re committed to empowering creators, fostering community, and continuing to redefine how the world watches, listens, and connects,” Mohan said. “Thank you to our incredible community of creators, artists, viewers, advertisers and partners for making YouTube the platform it is today. We can’t wait to see what we create together in the next 20 years.”