Viewers consume over 400 million hours’ worth of YouTube video podcasts on smart TVs each month, according to the platform. Photo Credit: BoliviaInteligente
After dethroning Spotify in the podcasting arena, YouTube has revealed new details about its surprising rise, which isn’t solely the result of consumption on computers and mobile devices.
The Google-owned platform disclosed these details in a newly published overview of its smart TV consumption metrics for 2024. At the top level – and despite the many hours logged on YouTube through different kinds of devices – viewers streamed north of one billion hours’ worth of YouTube content daily via TVs, per the analysis.
That metric brought with it viewership spikes in several categories – chief among them podcasting. “Viewers watched over 400M hours of podcasts monthly on living room devices,” YouTube spelled out. “They’ve been tuning into podcasts similarly to how one would tune into a late-night talk show.”
(In keeping with the growing preference for podcasts, not to mention their comparative accessibility and wider range of genres and host options, actual late-night talk shows aren’t faring very well in the ratings department.)
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On top of the monthly podcast-viewership bump behind TVs, YouTube pointed to a 35% YoY increase in the share of videos uploaded in 4K (excluding Shorts and as of October).
Similarly, “the number of creators making a majority of their revenue from TV is up more than 30% year over year” as of September, according to the resource.
Among other things, the stats are noteworthy with regard to YouTube’s initially mentioned jump past Spotify in podcasting. DMN Pro subscribers already have a handle on exactly how the key development came about.
But to restate the obvious, YouTube, which is reporting material revenue growth and boasts a large share of overall usage on TVs, managed to pull off the feat even after Spotify dropped a massive sum on related programs and companies.
Now, video has not so quietly become a bigger focus than ever at Spotify, referring mainly to podcasts but also music videos, television shows, comedy specials, and different content to boot.
Time will tell exactly where the initiative, accelerated during a “Now Playing” event last month, leads. As things stand, though, evidence continues to underscore the reach of YouTube and others in video podcasting and adjacent video spaces.
On the adjacent front, Amazon Music currently follows Thursday Night Football games with live concerts and streams festivals. YouTube also streams a number of festivals, of course, and the Super Bowl halftime show sponsor Apple Music offers exclusive video works from The Weeknd as well as a variety of others.