Already an advertising juggernaut, generating $15 billion in ad revenue in 2019, YouTube has finally found traction in the subscription business.
During parent company Alphabet’s fourth-quarter earnings call Tuesday, the company said that virtual pay TV service YouTube TV has surpassed 2 million subscribers.
The issuing of that imprecise figure would seem to position YouTube TV behind market leaders Sling TV, from Dish Network, and Hulu Live TV, each of which had around 2.7 million users as of the end of the third quarter.
Alphabet also said that its subscription services YouTube Music and YouTube Premium now collectively have more than 20 million users. Combined, the company added, YouTube now has a $3 billion annual run rate from subscriptions and other “non-advertising revenues.”
On Monday, equity research firm MoffettNathanson published a report indicating that the “exceptionally strong” customer growth of YouTube TV and Hulu Live in the fourth quarter offset another miserable quarter of retraction for linear pay TV. The rate of recession for the pay TV ecosystem was 6.8% without the vMVPDs factored in, and only 3.5% with them included.
