• by Wayne Friedman , March 31, 2025

New research shows YouTube, while it is the largest and an ever-growing connected TV platform, has room to improve versus other similar free/advertising video-on-demand services.

MoffettNathanson Research estimates YouTube pulled in $0.18 in U.S. advertising revenue per streaming hour in 2024.

This is ahead of Roku Channel ($0.15/hour) and Tubi ($0.11/hour) but lagging behind Pluto TV ($0.26/hour). These results include just the main, free YouTube platform, not the virtual pay TV provider YouTube TV.

This is largely attributable to YouTube’s dominating supply of streaming minutes, which in 2024 had leading 21% share. This tops Netflix’s 17% share; Walt Disney’s 11%; and Amazon (including Prime Video), 7%.

In comparison to just FAST platforms, YouTube is way ahead in streaming minutes -- Tubi has a 4% share, while Roku has 3%.

For the 12-month period ending in the third quarter of 2024, MoffettNathanson says YouTube advertising revenue was up 20% to $34.87 billion, with non-advertising revenue (subscription and other), up 38% to $15.13 billion.

In 2024, YouTube had the strongest viewing growth coming from those age 65 years and older, according to MoffettNathanson Research analysis of Nielsen and company data.

That older group climbed 32% year-over-year (to a 13% overall YouTube viewer share). Overall, the biggest group of viewers remains viewers ages 2-17 -- which grew 11% to a leading 27% share.

The biggest individual platform gains in the U.S. CTV streaming minutes was seen by The Roku Channel (58%); YouTube TV (48%), Fubo TV (48%), Tubi (42%), Peacock (42%) and the main YouTube platform (19%).