Enders Analysis, whose work I often read and cite, has a fascinating new report looking at YouTube on TV consumption and the effects thereof. Given the difficulties in extracting real data from the Google-owned service, they focussed on Trending content to try and see what performs well.
There are a couple of elements that stood out to me. First is one we, in broad terms, already knew – more and more YouTube content is being consumed on big TVs. The other thing I found interesting was the kind of genres that do well on YouTube and what can be monetised.
The report found that over a quarter, 26%, of YouTube viewing in the UK is happening on the TV. It hit 7.6% of total UK TV viewing in May-July this year. That is having meaningful consequences for the type of video appearing on YouTube. They are getting noticeably longer – the median length of a clip has increased by 75% in the last four years and is now at 12 minutes 23 seconds. This is interesting given that the video platform was so keen to push its TikTok competitor Shorts, not all that long ago.
TV Content on YouTube
Despite the growing power of the creator economy, traditional broadcasters are an important part of YouTube because it “prizes longer, brand-safe, professional content, as this is the most monetisable in terms of advertising. Broadcaster content ticks these boxes”. Not surprisingly, News & Politics and Sports content from broadcasters does particularly well, largely because it’s harder for content creators to publish the same kind of work. For instance, it would be almost impossible for a non-traditional broadcaster to legitimately produce high-quality football highlights. That is surely why the report found that clips and highlights perform the best for broadcasters – it’s the content that have already made and have the rights to.
One of the authors of the paper, Abi Watson, told me:
We estimate 49% of videos included in UK Trending can reasonably be mapped across to television content. These videos account for 62% of total Trending views – meaning TV-like content over-indexes on the platform.
All the broadcasters fear that by putting content on YouTube they will cannibalise people watching on their own platforms. It is though worth noting that Channel 4 is streaming the entirety of the Paralympics live on its YouTube channel.
Watson explained the financial incentives for YouTube in getting the broadcasters onto its platform. “There’s a clear financial incentive at play here for YouTube,” she said. Moving closer to TV-like content and duration would allow it to command TV-like advertising rates.”
YouTube will not abandon the creator economy any time soon, or probably ever. However, the focus on broadcasters is only likely to grow.
About the Author
