YouTube TV Crosses 8 Million Subscribers

After Google announced last week that YouTube and YouTube Music now had over 100 million subscribers, YouTube TV, the company’s live TV streaming service has also crossed a new milestone. Neal Mohan, the CEO of YouTube has just announced that YouTube TV now has more than 8 million paid subscribers, up from 5 million subscribers in July 2022.

YouTube TV is still US-only, and it currently starts at $72.99/month. The service provides live access to live TV from 100+ channels for up to 6 individual accounts, with unlimited DVR space. The service is available on the web, mobile, smart TVs, and game consoles, and it can be extended with paid add-ons such as the new NFL Sunday Ticket offering.

Mohan said today that improving YouTube’s subscription revenue and presence in the living room is one of the company’s main objectives for 2024. “This year, we’ll continue to deliver a best in class experience for subscriptions and YouTube in the living room,” the exec said.

Google is also happy to see that its main YouTube app has become a major source of entertainment in the living room. Mohan pointed out that on average, viewers now watch more than 1 billion hours of YouTube content on their TVs every day. The exec also cited a Nielsen report on streaming in the US showing that YouTube was the leader in TV streaming watchtime for the past 11 months.

While TV screens are one of YouTube’s main priorities, the team did not release an app for Apple’s new Vision Pro headset, which seems to provide an even more immersive way to watch videos. However, a YouTube spokesperson told The Verge today that “a Vision Pro app is on our roadmap.”

YouTube’s other priorities for 2024 include empowering content creators with new AI tools and supporting the “creator economy.” Mohan said that the YouTube Partner Program, which currently includes more than 3 million channels, has paid over $70 billion to its members over the past 3 years.