YouTube TV viewing

YouTube TV viewership grew once again in the U.S. during December 2024, according to newly released consumption data. Photo Credit: Muhammad Asyfaul

Look out, Spotify – YouTube expanded its TV viewing share over other streaming platforms in December, when it accounted for a record 11.1% of U.S. television watch time, per new data.

That data comes from Nielsen’s Media Distributor Gauge, which just recently disclosed its figures for November 25th through December 29th. Formally unveiled this past May, The Media Distributor Gauge charts stateside TV consumption and ranked YouTube second, behind only The Walt Disney Company’s various services, for November 2024.

At least as laid out in the “cross-platform view of total TV consumption,” however, YouTube’s television reach is on the rise. With its aforementioned 11.1% of U.S. TV viewing (of 43.3% for streaming overall) in December, the Google-owned platform turned in a 7% increase from the prior month and topped Netflix (8.5%) as well as Prime Video (4%).

The Gauge measures streaming, cable, and broadcast, but YouTube’s 11.1% share stemmed from the video-sharing platform itself – excluding “linear streaming” like that offered via its namesake live-TV service, the report shows.

In other words, YouTube’s U.S. television viewing share percentage is higher when factoring also for YouTube TV, which reportedly has over eight million subscribers in the States.

But even the core percentage is significant, especially against the backdrop of Spotify’s aggressive video buildout.

Most conspicuously, said buildout encompasses video podcasts, though concert specials, television shows, and more are likewise part of the initiative.

And while it perhaps goes without saying, competition is stiff in the video arena, where well-entrenched players are evidently having a hard time topping YouTube by certain consumption metrics.

Particularly on the podcasting side, a clear-cut market preference for video episodes seemingly enabled YouTube to overtake Spotify as the foremost podcast platform in the U.S. TV consumption is helping YouTube cement the position; last month, the platform revealed that its users had “watched over 400M hours of podcasts monthly on living room devices” in 2024.

Stated differently, Spotify has a long way to go before catching up to YouTube generally and when it comes to video podcasting. Closer to 2025’s beginning, Spotify officially debuted its video-podcast-focused Partner Program, under which eligible creators will receive a cut of Premium revenue when paid users watch their uploads.

Of course, it’ll be worth closely monitoring the Partner Program’s effect on Spotify’s podcast positioning throughout 2025. Without diving too far into the multifaceted subject, more than a few proper podcasts are vying for viewers and listeners on Spotify (and elsewhere).

But Spotify’s aggressive video embrace has brought with it growing pains as well; one needn’t spend very much time searching to find video “podcasts” that are difficult to objectively classify as such.

More troubling are video-podcast uploads of (not just containing) protected music, presumably unauthorized television episodes, adult content, and different media yet that definitely shouldn’t be on the platform at all. Last year, Spotify moved to hire several content-moderation and -safety team members.