YouTube targets AVOD

It was, in fairness, a bit of an open goal: a large extant audience, a large extant advertising client base, and a trend toward watching YouTube on the largest screen in the house – so now, in response, the streaming service has added 4,000 episodes of TV to the service in a challenge to the connected TV (CTV) space.

Why it matters

YouTube enters a crowded competitive field, but one in which it can expect to make a significant dent. As the company already offers ad-supported films, this is more of an expansion than a debut.

What’s driving this

• A pandemic that kept people at home played a significant role in boosting connected TV to 47% of digital video ad impressions by April 2021. YouTube alone brought in $8.6 billion in Q4 2021; it will need to bring in even more viewers in order to keep growing.
• It also suggests that it sees value in TV over movies for stimulating demand.
• While we’re not exactly talking up to the minute hit shows – the slate includes Hell’s Kitchen and Andromeda – its already enviable presence as a top-of-mind brand suggests it can hoover up viewers that would otherwise have had to seek out competitors like Roku and Pluto.

The service will be available in the US at first.

Sourced from YouTube, WARC Data