By now it’s common knowledge that YouTube has completely disrupted the TV ecosystem. What’s less widely known is that the opposite is true as well. In the United States, YouTube viewership on televisions has now surpassed mobile viewership. That’s one of several insights CEO Neal Mohan shared in his latest blog post, “Our big bets for 2025.”
Television specifically passed mobile in terms of watch time, making living room devices the No. 1 device for viewing YouTube. Previously, the video platform shared that people on average watch over 1 billion hours of YouTube daily and that the platform has been No. 1 in terms of streaming watch time for the past two years, according to Nielsen.
As TVs become a bigger and bigger part of YouTube’s ecosystem, the platform has started experimenting with a second screen experience. This allows users to interact with the YouTube video they’re watching on TV using their phones. This involves actions like leaving a comment on the video or using their phones or tablets to seamlessly purchase a product that appears in the video.
The platform also started to roll out its Watch With feature last year, which lets creators provide live commentary on real-time games and events. This feature started with NFL games, and YouTube plans to experiment with more sports and other types of content later this year. The platform has also introduced advertising formats that are more customized to the TV such as QR codes and pause ads. These changes may prove to be huge for creators as living room viewing increases. In 2024, more than more than 50% of channels earning five figures or more USD made their money from sources other than ads and YouTube Premium. As that trend continues, easier ways that incorporates shopping, such as QR codes, will likely continue to be beneficial to creators.
“Our growth on connected TVs is also attracting new advertisers,” Mohan shared in his post. “We’ll continue to improve fan-favorite YouTube TV features, like Key Plays and multiview and bring new benefits to YouTube Premium subscribers.”
The company is also rolling out new feature specifically for one of its newest and most promising creator segments: podcasts. In 2024 viewers watched over 400 million hours of podcasts monthly on their TVs. YouTube is now the most frequently used service for listening to podcasts in the U.S., according to research from Edison. To further support this growing segment, YouTube will release more tools to “support podcasters, improve monetization for creators and make it even easier to discover podcasts,” Mohan’s blog post reads.
Speaking of creators, two of YouTube’s newest features — Communities and Hype — will be getting a bigger push in the year to come. Communities links to a creator’s channel and gives creators and their fans a dedicated space to talk to and with one another. As for Hype, a “hype” serves as a sort of super-sized “like” that’s reserved for videos up to seven days old from creators with fewer than 500,000 subscribers. Both programs will be expanded more in 2025.
Mohan also touched on AI, noting that the company is “focused on building the right guardrails to protect creatives on YouTube,” starting with its previously announced partnership with CAA. YouTube also announced it will be using machine learning in 2025 to help the platform estimate a user’s age. The goal of this is help turn YouTube Kids into a more supervised environment.
“We’ll continue to responsibly harness the power of AI to enhance the YouTube experience for everyone,” Mohan wrote. “As we embark on our next chapter, we’re committed to empowering creators, fostering community and continuing to redefine how the world watches, listens, and connects.”
Currently, YouTube TV has more than 8 million subscribers while YouTube Music and Premium have more than 100 million subscribers. Both of those numbers include trials. Additionally, YouTube also saw a more than 40% uptick in channel memberships.
