YouTube now at 1.5bn viewers as TV viewing surges

YouTube now has 1.5 billion monthly viewers thanks in part to a surge in big-screen viewing, according to company stats.

Speaking on parent company Alphabet’s second quarter earnings call, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that people are watching an average of 60 minutes a day of YouTube on their phones and tablets.

However, he added that YouTube’s “fastest growing stream” is in the living room, and said: “YouTube watch time on TV screens has nearly doubled year-on-year”.

“This quarter we unveiled six new ad supported YouTube originals from celebrities including Ellen DeGeneres and Kevin Hart, and YouTube creators like Rhett and Link,” said Pichai. “Advertiser feedback on these new shows has been extremely positive.”

“Last week our Live TV service YouTube TV [also] had a [rollout in] ten new metro areas across America tripling the markets where it’s available in just four months.”

The comments came as Alphabet reported a big surge in revenues, but a year-on-year drop in profits due to its recent European Commission anti-trust fine. Excluding this, profits would have also been up.

Overall for the quarter ended June 30, 2017, Alphabet reported a 21% year-on-year jump in revenues to US$26.0 billion.

Net income came to US$3.52, down from US$4.88 billion a year earlier owing to the impact of the US$2.7 billion European Commission fine, which was accrued in Q2 2017.

The EC charged Google with abusing its dominance as search engine by giving “illegal advantage to own comparison shopping service,” putting it breach of EU antitrust rules.