YouTube's Milestone: Users Now Watch 100 Million Hours Per Day On TVs

by Alex Weprin , October 27, 2017

YouTube has passed a notable milestone: Every day, users of the video site watch 100 million hours of its content on TV sets, through smart TVs and devices like video game consoles and internet-connected set-top boxes.

Sundar Pichai, the CEO of YouTube parent company Google, announced the figure on the company’s earnings call Thursday evening.

For comparison, YouTube revealed a few months ago that on any given day users watch just over one billion hours of video, meaning that TV viewership now accounts for about 1/10th of all YouTube viewing. The number of living room views was up more than 70% year-over-year, Pichai added.

The viewership figures for TV sets is particularly notable when you consider than it was only five years ago that YouTube had 100 million hours of video views per day, total.

While traditional pay-TV bundles have historically dominated on TV sets, and upstarts like Netflix have been able to secure more screen time, YouTube is showing that it is able to hold its own, even if its long-form content library is not as large as some competitors.

The Google CEO also touted YouTube TV, the company’s over-the-top streaming video bundle, which features some linear cable channels. “Given where we are, I’m really excited about the initial reception,” Pichai said on the earnings call. The service only launched a few months ago, and YouTube has yet to reveal subscriber figures.

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4 comments about "YouTube's Milestone: Users Now Watch 100 Million Hours Per Day On TVs".

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John Grono from GAP Research, October 27, 2017 at 6:01 p.m.
Does anyone know whether that is a US figure or a global figure?
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Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, October 27, 2017 at 6:16 p.m.

I don't know for sure, John, but the "findings" if true and applied only to the U.S. would make YouTube video viewing, in terms of tonnage, about as extensive as Netflix and I seriously doubt that this is even close to being the case. Accordingly, I would guess that the referrence is to the total globe, not just the U.S.

John Grono from GAP Research, October 27, 2017 at 6:48 p.m.

Thanks Ed.

As perspective Aussies view around 2hrs 39 mins per day of TV (live + playback, broadcast + cable) and there are around 24.5m of us. So we view around 65m hours of TV per day - around two-thirds the YT number.

Ed correct me if I am wrong but the latest US TV viewing data I saw was a smidge over 5 hours per day, with a 2+ TV population of just over 300 million. So I make that 1.5 billion hours of TV per day or 15x that of YT.

Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, October 27, 2017 at 6:57 p.m.

That's approximately right, John. As for SVOD, Nielsen now says that it amounts to about 10-12% of all viewing time---but I'm not certain if that's included in that five- hour- per day figure. Also Netflix has ganners 6-7% of all viewing. If YouTube also drew 6-7% these two content suppliers would account for all SVOD viewing and then some---highly unlikely as there is Hulu, Amazon and about 30+ others competing for viewing time. I think that YouTube's actual share is around 3%-3.5 % but we will have to wait for Nielsen to give us a better fix on that.