• by Wayne Friedman , October 15, 2024

While YouTube TV has slowed growth in terms of downloads of the app, daily active users have seen steady growth -- especially in the key month of September, when the NFL season starts.

YouTube TV --  a broadband-delivered platform and now the third-largest pay TV provider -- averaged 2.07 million global daily active users in September, up from an average 1.25 million in the 11 previous months, according to Guggenheim Securities and Apptopia.

In September 2023, the virtual pay TV platform witnessed similar results -- with 2.01 million, versus an average of 1.05 million in the previous 11-month period.

YouTube TV continues to see major benefits from its big “NFL Sunday Ticket,” which offers football fans many more NFL games than other fans, due to access to out-of-market games. “Sunday Ticket” started up in 2023.

But actual downloads of the YouTube TV app -- for new subscribers to the service -- are slowing for September, up around 80,000.

A year ago, September 2023, YouTube TV took in around 110,000. 

Guggenheim projects that for the third quarter of 2024, YouTube will have 8.4 million U.S. subscribers -- up 12.5% from a year ago, compared to 8.0 million in early February this year.

The total revenue for 2024 is estimated to grow 27% to $10.2 billion -- with $592 million coming from the NFL Sunday Ticket.

Programming costs for YouTube TV break down with $4.2 billion paid out in program/network affiliate fees and $2 billion to “NFL Sunday Ticket.”

Looking at its bigger sister-streaming platform YouTube, Guggenheim estimates advertising revenue will hit $35.8 billion in 2024.

For consumers, YouTube TV continues to be a big attraction based on the number of channels offered in its programming packages, according to Michael Morris, media analyst of Guggenheim Securities. 

“YouTube TV offers the lowest cost per channel of any full-service vMVPD at $0.64 -- versus $0.84 for Hulu + Live TV or $0.82 for DirecTV Stream -- suggesting a strong value proposition.”

Core current pricing has YouTube TV at $72.99 per month for over 100 channels.

The service can include live channels (broadcast, cable, and regional sports networks), as well as on-demand content and over 30 OTT-originated platforms.