YouTube Now Gets More Watch Time on TV Than Mobile in the US

As YouTube will celebrate its 20th birthday in December, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan boldly claimed today that YouTube has become “the new television.” In the US, TV beat mobile devices for YouTube watch time as of December 2024.

“For more and more people, watching TV means watching YouTube,” Mohan said today. “Viewers are watching, on average, over 1B hours of YouTube content on TVs daily, and TV is now the primary device for YouTube viewing in the U.S.”

While TV has now surpassed mobile for YouTube, the YouTube CEO also cited a report from Edison Research from October 2024 pointing out that YouTube is now the most popular podcast listening service in the US, with 31% of weekly podcast listeners in the country choosing YouTube over Spotify (27%) and Apple Podcasts (15%). Additionally, according to a recent Nielsen study, YouTube has dominated streaming watch time in the U.S. for two years.

Mohan also said today that YouTube’s subscription services are “seeing a lot of momentum”: YouTube TV, which recently became even more expensive, now has more than 8 million subscribers in the US. Additionally, YouTube Music & Premium has more than 100 million subscribers, though that number also includes trials.

Looking forward to the future, the YouTube CEO believes that AI will make it easier to create and consume content on the platform. The company recently rolled out new features for generating image backgrounds, video backgrounds, and instrumental soundtracks for YouTube’s TikTok-like Shorts video format. Later this month, the company will also make the AI-powered auto dubbing feature available for all creators in the YouTube Partner Program, with support for more languages coming soon.

“AI has long been a part of our journey, from powering recommendations to producing captions to helping us identify and remove harmful content. As we look ahead, we’ll continue investing in AI tools that empower creators and artists throughout their creative journey,” Mohan said today.