YouTube‘s commanding share of TV viewership has been well-documented. In 2024, it became the first platform to earn 10% of all TV traffic in Nielsen‘s The Gauge report, and YouTube has expanded its viewership share since then.
From a volume standpoint, YouTube’s lead over “premium” rivals like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video appears to be increasing, but how engaged are the viewers who are driving that growth? That’s the question TVision looked to answer in its H2 2025 State of Streaming Report, and the measurement firm’s findings reveal that Netflix and its ilk still hold some advantages over YouTube’s TV empire.
With its “computer-vision technology,” TVision gathered engagement data from an opt-in panel of 5,000 U.S. homes. The firm then analyzed that data to assign an attention score to each measured platform.
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Across all hours of the day, the “top premium CTV apps” — a category that includes Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max — had a better “attention to duration ratio” than YouTube. The gap is most pronounced at primetime, when the premium apps posted a 26.2% ratio compared to YouTube’s 17.6% ratio.
Perhaps those ratios say more about YouTube’s volume than its lack of attention, but the top premium streamers offer a powerful mix of extensive reach and dialed-in viewers. TVision noted that YouTube, Netflix, and Prime Video are the three apps that reached more than 50% of measured households during the second half of 2025.
Ironically, the three shows that ranked the highest on the TVision Power Score (which incorporates both reach and attention data) are all Netflix originals. Stranger Things, Wednesday, and The Beast In Me topped TVision’s rankings, even as Netflix advises screenwriters to cater their scripts to viewers who might not be paying attention.
YouTube’s rise on TV screens, meanwhile, has been powered by video podcasts and other formats that cater to multitaskers. But Google’s video hub has a secret weapon that could improve its attention ratios. Its extensive partnership with the NFL connects it to a particularly plugged-in audience. TVision noted a bump in attention centered around NFL playoff ads, so if YouTube angles for more exclusive football broadcasts, it could gain on Netflix in TVision’s standings.
