YouTube Viewing Shifts from Phones to TV Screens

The fact that more people are watching YouTube on their TVs than on their phones has been confirmed. Every day, users watch over 1 billion hours of YouTube content on their TVs, according to a letter from YouTube CEO Neal Mohan. And this eliminates any remaining uncertainty: YouTube is in the TV industry.

The CEO of YouTube, Neal Mohan, claims that TV screens are now the “primary device for YouTube viewing in the U.S.”, surpassing mobile devices. To put it another way, at least in the United States, more people view YouTube on TVs than on any other device. He boldly asserted today that YouTube has become “the new television,” as the platform will celebrate its 20th birthday in December. As of December 2024, YouTube watch time in the US was higher on TV than on mobile devices.

According to Mohan today, “watching TV means watching YouTube for more and more people.” “TV is now the main device for YouTube viewing in the United States, with viewers consuming over 1 billion hours of YouTube content on average each day.” Mohan notes that the “new” television does not resemble the “old” television. “In addition to the sports, sitcoms, and talk shows that people already enjoy, it’s interactive and features things like shorts (yes, people watch them on TVs), podcasts, and live streams.”

With good reason, YouTube has been the most popular streaming service in the United States for the last two years, according to Nielsen data. Significant changes have been made by the corporation to its TV app, giving the impression that it is a full-fledged streaming service.

The YouTube CEO also mentioned an Edison Research report from October 2024 that showed YouTube is now the most popular podcast listening service in the US, with 31% of weekly podcast listeners in the country choosing YouTube over Spotify (27%) and Apple Podcasts (15%), even though TV has now overtaken mobile for YouTube. Furthermore, YouTube has dominated streaming view time in the United States for the past two years, per a recent Nielsen research.

YouTube changed the TV app’s layout last year so that users could view a video’s description and comments on the right side of the screen while the video was playing on the left. Along with a Watch With feature that enables authors to contribute real-time commentary to games and events, it also introduced “seasons” that facilitate the navigation of video series using a remote control.

“Watching TV has become synonymous with watching YouTube for an increasing number of people,” Mohan wrote. However, the “old” and “new” televisions don’t appear alike. In addition to the sports, sitcoms, and chat programs that people currently like, it is interactive and has content like shorts (yep, people watch them on TVs), podcasts, and live broadcasts.

YouTube has also prioritized TV for a long time. Mohan mentioned in last year’s letter that the firm was investing in the YouTube TV vMVPD. Last year, the business made significant modifications to the TV app experience. In his letter, Mohan also highlighted three other “big bets” for 2025.

YouTube’s subscription services are “seeing a lot of momentum,” according to Mohan, who also mentioned that YouTube TV, which just increased its price and more than 8 million people have signed up for YouTube TV, which just saw a price increase, while more than 100 million people have subscribed to YouTube Premium and Music (including trials). These figures are the same as those YouTube gave last year. Mohan stated that the business will “continue to bring new benefits to YouTube Premium subscribers and improve fan-favourite YouTube TV features, like Key Plays and multiview.”

According to the CEO of YouTube, artificial intelligence will facilitate the production and consumption of content on the site in the future. Recently, the firm released new tools for creating musical soundtracks, graphic backdrops, and video backgrounds for YouTube’s Shorts video format, which is similar to TikTok. All YouTube Partner Program producers will have access to the AI-powered auto dubbing function later this month, with further language support on the horizon.

“AI has been a part of our journey for a long time, helping us detect and eliminate bad material, creating subtitles, and powering recommendations. We’ll keep making investments in AI technologies that support artists and creators at every stage of their creative process, Mohan stated today.

In a segment headlined “YouTube will remain the epicenter of culture,” he mentioned that on election day last year, 45 million Americans watched election-related material. He also mentioned the popularity of videos on the site, such as Joe Rogan’s conversation with President Trump and the Saturday Night Live parody featuring Kamala Harris.

According to Mohan, YouTube will “roll out more tools to support podcasters, improve monetization for creators, and make it even easier to discover podcasts” this year. “The world’s biggest moments from elections to the Olympics to Coachella to the Super Bowl and the Cricket World Cup play out on YouTube,” he writes.

However, despite the initial excitement surrounding AI picture and video generating products (which YouTube is also creating), Mohan says that YouTube creators are discovering more useful, more straightforward tools. YouTube is also aiming to provide additional AI tools to creators.

“Despite the generative models’ impressiveness, artists tell them that they’re more enthused about how AI can support their core business. To assist them in their daily creative tasks, such as coming up with a fresh video concept, title, or thumbnail, they are investing in tools,” Mohan says. AI is also being used to assist creators in reaching new audiences. Viewers who opt to listen in a dubbed language account for about 40% of the total time spent watching videos with dubbed audio. They introduced auto dubbing last year, which enables content producers to quickly adapt their videos into other languages. They will enable auto dubbing for all YouTube Partner Program producers later this month. Over the course of the year, they will keep improving this and add new languages.