Historians likely will recall July 2024 as the moment that forever changed television. That was the month YouTube broke not one but two Nielsen viewership records: It became the first streaming service to account for more than 10% of total TV viewing time as well as the first to surpass the sum totals of major media distributors like Disney and Paramount.
YouTube’s viewership — in living room TVs, not just on phones or laptops — has been growing steadily. But 2024 was a breakthrough year for the 19-year-old Alphabet-owned platform. In October, YouTube accounted for 10.6% of all TV viewership compared to Netflix’s 7.5%,