Like your average glacier, those in the business of ad-supported streaming are waiting with renewed anticipation for a big chunk of the more than $60 billion spent annually in the U.S. on linear TV advertising to break off.
And YouTube’s chief product officer, Neal Mohan, wants to assert his platform’s supremacy when it comes to ad-supported OTT. In a blog post published this week, Mohan said YouTube and virtual pay TV service YouTube TV are increasingly bigger factors in U.S. living rooms, and he wants to remind everyone that YouTube currently commands the lion’s share of OTT advertising.
Citing Comscore data, Mohan said that 82.5% of connected TV reach in the U.S. is based on five streaming services: Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu and Disney Plus.
Among those platforms, only one other besides YouTube, Hulu, blends ad sales into its revenue streams. And 41% of all ad-supported streaming in the U.S. is consumed on YouTube. Mohan also cited data suggesting that 70% of YouTube viewers say they bought a brand as a result of seeing it on YouTube.
All of this was framed in the context of YouTube evolving into a mainstream TV presence. In December, Mohan noted, 120 million U.S. consumers streamed YouTube or YouTube TV on TV screens, up from 100 million in March of last year. Of those viewers, a quarter of them watch YouTube exclusively on TVs, he added.
Mohan also used some of his blog to pitch advertisers on improved metrics and infrastructure. “For the first time ever this 2021/2022 upfront season in the U.S., advertisers will be able to measure their YouTube CTV campaigns with Nielsen,” Mohan said.
