Is YouTube the Future of Television?
According to The Puck News, it could be.
Contrary to the perception, Netflix, Prime Video, or Disney Plus are not the most popular video streaming services. YouTube is.
The Puck News website analyzed the matter in a report by Julia Alexander: “The 18-year-old social video platform gets far fewer media attention than Netflix or even Hulu. But it’s not an exaggeration to say that YouTube (including YouTube TV, which offers 100 or so cable and broadcast channels for $73 a month) has quietly become a frontrunner in the battle for the future of over-the-top television,” writes Alexander, posing another question: is YouTube the future of television?
“Despite producing original content and hosting billions of user-generated videos, YouTube isn’t quite competing in the same category as streamers like Netflix, whose growth relies on their pipeline of originals and well-worn old reliable hits, plus the algorithm that suggests them.
Instead, YouTube seems to have broader ambitions. And it has several key advantages that could position Alphabet, its parent company, to compete with Amazon Prime Video as the platform of the platforms, the one upon which most other streamers rest.”
According to the article, those advantages are:
1) The recommendation engine. No platform is better at providing recommended trailers, behind-the-scenes featurettes, or creator essays on thousands of television shows and films to keep people watching longer. The autoplay function also ensures that these users don’t have to seek out something they may be interested in; instead, it surfaces automatically. Sure, Netflix has a similarly powerful recommendation engine but it doesn’t have access to the social web.
2) The Ecosystem Advantage. YouTube TV, which can be added to any smart TV system (Fire TV, Roku, Apple TV, Google TV), maintains a familiar grid-like user interface that hundreds of millions of people already understand from decades of scrolling through linear television. As television becomes streaming and streaming dominates larger entertainment platforms, ecosystems like YouTube have an advantage over individual apps.
3) The NFL Scenario. The company made a serious investment in its NFL Sunday ticket package. YouTube is paying roughly $2 billion a year for seven years, and the pricing structure for fans amounts to anywhere from $249 to $489 for the upcoming season. DirecTV has been paying $1.5 billion annually for rights and reportedly losing $500 million a year on the package. But YouTube clearly sees an opportunity to capture more users.
4) The Gaming Lesson. YouTube found its edge with billions of hours of user-generated gaming content.
YouTube’s most awe-inspiring contribution to the gaming industry is the birthplace of “Let’s Play Videos,” where creators film themselves playing through a specific game. These helped Minecraft generate billions of dollars in revenue and led the games industry into an entirely new era for marketing, creation, and, most importantly, consumption.
“Of course, YouTube isn’t without its issues,” concludes Alexander. “It’s still not a premium content service. It’s primarily seen as a free platform (meaning that trying to convert those viewers to paying customers is difficult), and being part of Google means that any significant move into additional consumer spaces comes with heightened scrutiny from regulators. But YouTube has the advantage of being global, with tremendous scale and, based on all the data available, high adoption on smart TV sets. It deserves more attention in the streaming war.”
Source: The Puck News
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According to The Puck News, it could be.
Contrary to the perception, Netflix, Prime Video, or Disney Plus are not the most popular video streaming services. YouTube is.
The Puck News website analyzed the matter in a report by Julia Alexander: “The 18-year-old social video platform gets far fewer media attention than Netflix or even Hulu. But it’s not an exaggeration to say that YouTube (including YouTube TV, which offers 100 or so cable and broadcast channels for $73 a month) has quietly become a frontrunner in the battle for the future of over-the-top television,” writes Alexander, posing another question: is YouTube the future of television?
“Despite producing original content and hosting billions of user-generated videos, YouTube isn’t quite competing in the same category as streamers like Netflix, whose growth relies on their pipeline of originals and well-worn old reliable hits, plus the algorithm that suggests them.
Instead, YouTube seems to have broader ambitions. And it has several key advantages that could position Alphabet, its parent company, to compete with Amazon Prime Video as the platform of the platforms, the one upon which most other streamers rest.”
According to the article, those advantages are:
1) The recommendation engine. No platform is better at providing recommended trailers, behind-the-scenes featurettes, or creator essays on thousands of television shows and films to keep people watching longer. The autoplay function also ensures that these users don’t have to seek out something they may be interested in; instead, it surfaces automatically. Sure, Netflix has a similarly powerful recommendation engine but it doesn’t have access to the social web.
2) The Ecosystem Advantage. YouTube TV, which can be added to any smart TV system (Fire TV, Roku, Apple TV, Google TV), maintains a familiar grid-like user interface that hundreds of millions of people already understand from decades of scrolling through linear television. As television becomes streaming and streaming dominates larger entertainment platforms, ecosystems like YouTube have an advantage over individual apps.
3) The NFL Scenario. The company made a serious investment in its NFL Sunday ticket package. YouTube is paying roughly $2 billion a year for seven years, and the pricing structure for fans amounts to anywhere from $249 to $489 for the upcoming season. DirecTV has been paying $1.5 billion annually for rights and reportedly losing $500 million a year on the package. But YouTube clearly sees an opportunity to capture more users.
4) The Gaming Lesson. YouTube found its edge with billions of hours of user-generated gaming content.
YouTube’s most awe-inspiring contribution to the gaming industry is the birthplace of “Let’s Play Videos,” where creators film themselves playing through a specific game. These helped Minecraft generate billions of dollars in revenue and led the games industry into an entirely new era for marketing, creation, and, most importantly, consumption.
“Of course, YouTube isn’t without its issues,” concludes Alexander. “It’s still not a premium content service. It’s primarily seen as a free platform (meaning that trying to convert those viewers to paying customers is difficult), and being part of Google means that any significant move into additional consumer spaces comes with heightened scrutiny from regulators. But YouTube has the advantage of being global, with tremendous scale and, based on all the data available, high adoption on smart TV sets. It deserves more attention in the streaming war.”
Source: The Puck News
Share:
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