- YouTube creators are increasingly optimizing their content for TV screens.
- There was an increase in 4K videos and creators earning revenue from TV viewership this year.
- YouTube executive Kurt Wilms shared the best-performing content on the big screen.
2024 was an important year for watching YouTube on the big screen.
YouTube said this month that creators’ earnings from TV grew by more than 30% year-over-year and the share of videos uploaded in 4K increased by more than 35%.
Kurt Wilms, senior director of product management at YouTube, said more creators are making highly produced episodic content. Wilms leads the teams responsible for YouTube’s “living room” efforts.
“2024 was the year of the living room,” Wilms told Business Insider. “Creators across the board, no matter what content they’re making, are keen to optimize their content for the bigger screen.”
Historically, many creators thought their audience would watch on a mobile phone and didn’t expect them to watch for an hour or two in a meeting, Wilms said. But now, creators are no longer limited to thinking about creating content in bite-sized chunks.
Michelle Khare, who has 4.8 million subscribers, is an example of a YouTube creator focused on episodic content. Her series “Challenge Accepted” is divided into episodes and seasons. It also categorizes its YouTube content and organizes videos on similar topics into playlists, which makes it easier to watch them all at once on one TV screen.
“One of the things that’s happened throughout 2024 is content that’s probably traditionally seen on television, like sports and children’s content, is performing well for us on TV,” Wilms said. “It has gained a lot of momentum.”
In YouTube Studio, creators can view their analytics about how different videos perform across devices such as mobile, web and TV.
“I would assume that for most creators over time they will see a shift and increase in television viewership,” Wilms said. “I just think that’s a general industry trend and the trend of seeing it happen.”
Looking ahead, Wilms said his team is thinking about how to better enable features that allow audiences to more easily interact with creators on the big screen.
Kurt Wilms is the senior director of product management at YouTube. to YouTube
Here are 3 types of top-performing content on the YouTube TV app, according to Wilms:
- Watch sports content
A popular search term for sports-related content on YouTube is “watchalong,” which is what creators call videos related to commentary about live events, including sports.
“You can come before a game to see news, predictions, clips, interviews, all leading up to a game,” Wilms said. “When the game is going on, you can see real-time reaction highlights and commentary on the plays. Then, when the game is over, you can see all the official highlights and pundits talking about what they thought about the game .”
NFL Sunday Ticket and NFL RedZone subscribers can watch two to four broadcasts together based on the program’s start and end times with a feature called multiview.
Wilms said that next year, his team will continue to pilot a feature called “watch with,” where the viewer can watch an event and a creator at once on the screen.
“Watch with was born out of this idea that creators are commentators,” Wilms said. “We’re in the early stages of developing this feature. But we think it’s going to be amazing for creators and viewers.”
- Content adapted for children
Children’s content also performs well on TV, Wilms said.
“I think because one of the most important values of YouTube on the big screen is the ability to watch it with others, whether it’s friends or family,” said Wilms.
Last year, the channel of Ms. Rachel on YouTube, which has 12.8 million subscribers, had one of the platform’s highest watch times on TV, the company said this month.
Last year, YouTube combined YouTube and YouTube Kids into one living room app. Now, YouTube is rolling out a feature for TVs called Parental Code, which allows parents to set a PIN to access adult-focused content on the app.
- Long-form video podcasts
The creators of YouTube are redefining what a podcast is.
Traditionally, a podcast was thought of as an audio-only experience. But now, many creators make video podcasts that resemble a talk show format.
“With video podcasts in the living room, you can put it on the TV and watch or listen while doing something else hands-free,” Wilms said.
Wilms said that viewers generally choose to watch content on the big screen through a mobile phone or a computer for three main reasons: they are devoted fans of a creator; they want to watch content with others; or they’re at home and watching while doing something else, like cleaning or making dinner.
