YouTube is watched more on the TV than on the cell phone

"YouTube is the new television" – is the headline of YouTube CEO Neal Mohan's blog entry at the start of the year. In the USA, the TV is now the device on which YouTube is used most frequently. This means that the TV has moved ahead of mobile devices, which have led this category for years.

It should be noted that this statement only refers to the USA, where YouTube TV is a streaming service that also includes traditional TV offerings. YouTube TV is not available in Germany. However, Mohan makes it clear in his blog entry that YouTube TV is not the only thing being watched on TV in the USA either.

"The 'new' TV doesn't look like the 'old' TV," writes Mohan. "It's interactive and includes things like shorts (yes, they're watched on TV), podcasts and livestreams, right alongside sports, sitcoms and talk shows."

New advertising formats for televisions

The rise of YouTube on TV also means new interest from advertising partners, explains Mohan. YouTube is still busy developing new advertising formats that work ideally on TV –, such as QR codes or ads during paused playback. Amazon's Prime Video introduced such advertising last year, and YouTube is also already using ads in the pause screen, as posts on social media show.

Mohan also announced some subscriber figures in his blog post. YouTube TV has "more than 8 million subscribers" –, a figure that YouTube published a year ago. How much the number of subscribers has increased in the meantime is not clear from the vague wording. According to Mohan, YouTube Music and YouTube Premium have over 100 million subscribers. However, the total also includes trial versions of the subscriptions.

(dahe)