YouTube Surprise: CEO Says TV Overtakes Mobile as 'Primary Device' for Viewing (hollywoodreporter.com) 49
If there was any doubt before, this seals it: YouTube is in the TV business. According to Neal Mohan, YouTube's CEO, TV screens have officially overtaken mobile as the "primary device for YouTube viewing in the U.S." In other words, more people are watching YouTube on TV sets than any other device, at least here in the U.S. From a report: It is, as Mohan writes in his annual letter from the CEO, an indication that "YouTube is the new television."
"But the 'new' television doesn't look like the 'old' television," Mohan writes. "It's interactive and includes things like Shorts (yes, people watch them on TVs), podcasts, and live streams, right alongside the sports, sitcoms and talk shows people already love."
"But the 'new' television doesn't look like the 'old' television," Mohan writes. "It's interactive and includes things like Shorts (yes, people watch them on TVs), podcasts, and live streams, right alongside the sports, sitcoms and talk shows people already love."
Flawed (Score:4, Insightful)
The flaw is somehow assuming that the "TV" is still a TV in the traditional sense.
The television console in the home is now a central point for content retrieval and interaction, it's not a passive device.
The modern TV has as much in common with the TV we knew from the forties to the noughties as the modern smart cellphone has in common with Ma Bell. This is to say that the original functionality remains largely in place (with notable exceptions like Vizio that are removing the OTA tuner!) but is now only a very, very small part of what the device does.
Re: (Score:3)
Yeah I should be counted as a "TV" viewer but YouTube will see me as a desktop/web user running Linux ... since I don't connect my "smart" TV to the Internet and instead use a mini computer running Linux with a heavily customized KDE and a USB remote control to make it feel like a smart TV UI. I'm probably in the extreme minority and wouldn't really skew their metrics at all. But device detection is kind of tricky with a "platform" as massive as they are.
Re: (Score:1)
My setup is similar. No TV at all, just my regular old monitor, and a computer running linux, but it also serves for getting OTA TV via an ATSC tuner. (I have both a hauppauge and an HDhomerun. I have a little old beaglebone running linux that gets TV content from the hdhomerun via curl. This is my VCR that I program to record shows via cron/at. Then I sftp them to my big computer for viewing.)
Re: (Score:2)
. No TV at all, just my regular old monitor,
I think that’s ok as long as it’s a CRT.
Re: (Score:2)
The biggest flaw is that content consumption has been pwned by advertising. The world’s largest ad network running the largest video site tells you everything you need to know about that.
Fuck advertising and fuck google.
Re: (Score:2)
That's all consumer TV ever was though.
Go back and look at television programs from the 1950s, and they're all, "Blah Blah, brought to you by Brand-X" or "Brand-X Theatre" or "Brand-X Variety Hour".
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, but back then they did a quick bumper on either end of the show. They didn't interrupt ever couple minutes to scream about whatever new drug they're for some reason pushing on TV instead of educating doctors about. Drug advertising is perhaps the worst of the ads these days, and they're almost completely taking over some ad driver free streaming services.
Have not watched "TV" in 20+ years. (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
And the YT TV app, WILL show ads to you even if you PAY for it NOT to
Not sure what version of the app you've used but the Apple TV app does not show ads if you have premium. I use it daily and never see them.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
You poor unhinged snowflake. Talk to a Gen Xer about life with commercials growing up. Not pausing liveTV. No on-demand content. And the president constantly interrupting your shows to communicate something about national security. Most people just tune out commercials. Its not like I need a plaque psoriasis drug anyway out of the 7 being advertised.
Re: (Score:1)
Re:Have not watched "TV" in 20+ years. (Score:4, Informative)
Re: Have not watched "TV" in 20+ years. (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Was Mr Microphone a RonCo product? Lol
Re: Have not watched "TV" in 20+ years. (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I am a Gen Xer myself.
Britain's TV was bearable because the BBC didn't have ads, and the ITV channels limited it to every 15-30 minutes depending on the length of the show. A one hour show would have two commercial interruptions.
When I came to the US, I literally found broadcast TV unwatchable. It wasn't until I got a DVR I started watching broadcast TV. Cable TV was similarly bad and I cancelled after a few months.
No, the GP is not a "snowflake", American TV was unwatchable during the 1990s and early 2000s
Re: (Score:2)
I fail to see how YouTube benefits from showing me ads that are not relevant.
It's because advertisers are stupid, or the people who pay them are stupid, there's no third option.
Re: (Score:2)
The difference was you knew when the commercials would come on and when they would end. There was no battery of ads popping out at any moment. This is why you could take a quick bathroom break before dashing back to the couch to see who Joan Collins was going to slap next or who shot JR.
When you watched a football game, that's all there was. At no time was there an ad anywhere except when they took breaks.
Commercials were not interspersed with the show and they definitely did not take up 15 minutes out of
Re: (Score:2)
yes they did. In fact the air time of a 1hr drama is around 46 minutes depending on the network. If you go back and look at the old shows on streaming services they are all listed at 46min for drama's and 23 min for comedys. Now lately I have seen this shrink to 42min on some networks. But 15min was not out of the norm. For example Starsky and Hutch ranged from 46 to 50min per episode. The A-team averaged about 48min per episode same as Magnum P.I. You had to go back to before 1955 to return to shows that w
Re: (Score:2)
If you haven't watched TV in 20+ years I assume you're in your 30s or 40s. How old is your Great Aunt?
So long as it still works on a "smart" TV (Score:2)
After a firmware upgrade the youtube app (along with another) on my "smart" TV stopped working claiming the hardware was no longer supported. Why? Who knows, probably no technical reason, more likely planned obscelence. Luckily I mainly use it as a cheap monitor and can watch via the Mac but still, leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
Re: (Score:2)
Streaming boxes and sticks are better IMO. Vizio and Tizan do a shit job trying to make a decent streaming OS. The OS doesnt get updated as frequently as it should whereas replacing a stick is simple. Most of these chips use hardware acceleration to decode the video codec. Older chips did not include support for H.265 and equivalent which could be an issue depending on the age of your display.
I can't imagine watching... (Score:2)
...youtube on a tiny screen, not even in an emergency
Please kill Shorts! (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
So true. Even when you tell it to turn off shorts on the main page it smuggly advises that they'll be turned back on in 30 days or something.
What part of "NO SHORTS" does YouTube not understand?
Why even offer the ability to turn off shorts if you're going to turn them back on in a few weeks' time even though the user has made it clear they don't want to see the damned things?
Re: (Score:2)
I think you will find that YouTube" and "understand" are incompatible concepts.
Re: (Score:3)
It was to try and compete for tiktok losers. Just thumbs down their crap and unsubscribe. Detail why in the comments if you want. Even on a phone you can turn it to widescreen view. Yes lets remove peripheral vision and show 30ft of parkinglot and sky instead. Thats whats more important than whats going on in the space around the object right? /endSarcasm. 55in screen? You see that 110+ screen at CES? Now that is some home theater right there. Imagine TLOTR in HFR 4K HDR on something like that!
Re: (Score:2)
Agreed.
TV is great for us greybeards (Score:5, Insightful)
I can't see a damn thing on all these apps with tiny fonts, and I hung my big screen TV on the wall in front of my bed. And yeah I watch lots of Youtube videos on there. These days Youtube rewards creators who develop longer videos so there's actually lots of pretty interesting stuff, news, history documentaries, travel videos or even cooking.
Even Neil deGrasse Tyson has a show there.
Re: (Score:2)
I can't see a damn thing on all these apps with tiny fonts, and I hung my big screen TV on the wall in front of my bed. And yeah I watch lots of Youtube videos on there. These days Youtube rewards creators who develop longer videos so there's actually lots of pretty interesting stuff, news, history documentaries, travel videos or even cooking. Even Neil deGrasse Tyson has a show there.
The problem is that some of those longer shows are literally 20 minute diatribes for subjects that deserve a few minutes at most. If I'm looking for a guitar amp demo, I don't need twenty minutes of unboxing, another twenty minutes of the dumbfuck describing to me what a bass knob does, what a treble knob does, what a gain knob does, nor do I need him describing his fucking guitar collection before plugging one in and playing some shitty shred-attempt from somebody who wouldn't know a tasty lick if it came
Its just a big 60" phone running android (Score:1)
Its just a big 60" phone running android
How is this a surprise? (Score:2)
Is that true? (Score:1)
It sounds whack. It doesn't sound possible.
My friend's parents watch YouTube TV constantly (Score:2)
Dad just sits on his ass all day, remote in hand, going from useless video to propaganda newscast. Then he turns on Fox or Newsmax for a bit for more propaganda. Then he's back to YouTube for more shit.
Is this better than him doing it on the phone? I've no idea.
Who would have thought (Score:2)
that people would prefer watching videos on a TV set that covers half their wall, rather than a phone screen smaller than the palm of their hand.
What will they think of next?
I have a mobile TV (Score:2)
Or desktop (Score:2)
Double take (Score:2)
TV Youtube is my favorite channel (Score:2)
Youtube on my TV is the vast majority of things I watch on that TV. The vast scope of topics, the effective use of however they do it (algorithms? whatever that means): it all adds up to very interesting, educational, and even current topics. Of course I watch a LOT of history and old programs (dearly loving snips from "West Wing" and the like). But I could do without almost every other choice of "channels" that are available on my TV (although I'm subscribed to almost none of them). Cheers for Youtub