This feels more significant than I'd expect it to? We are dominated by reporting about how our phones are growing to define our interactions with media. To have a trend that is bucking that is surprising.
I think TV>Mobile for watch time is less surprising because of the nature of content you'd watch on the TV (longer form, background stuff).
User count would be surprising. And this is from someone who primarily uses their TV for Youtube.
- There are more mobile devices than TVs. A family of four may have 1 or 2 TVs but they have 4+ phones/tablets. Similarly, you need another phone to accomodate another viewer, whereas you do not need another TV.
- TV accounts are often shared so even if you had multiple people using the TV there is a fair chance it would be squashed to 1 user
- Youtube content is increasingly short form which fits better with mobile than sitting down on the couch. All Youtube shorts are designed to be consumed on the phone, for example.
- You always have your phone with you. You're usually only around your TV a handful of hours a day.
- You are often getting funneled to YouTube via a link from somewhere else on your phone. Reddit, X, group text, etc. No chance of that while using your TV for something else.
Specifically to youtube, I am also a bit surprised at it being used heavily on televisions. It is not a pleasant experience there. I have a hard time on phone, but at least there the popup keyboard is a bit more usable.
Granted, saying that, it occurs to me that i don't actually know the usage of youtube for videos. Short form content makes sense. You just keep flipping to the next of somewhat related content. I suppose news consumption is similar? We have turned news content into short form videos?
Or just phones are small screens and people have bad eyes and big TVs. It’s easy to send content from a phone or iPad to a tv these days.
Demographics, and low friction technology. And there is good content on YouTube for anyone and everyone
At least ads on kids channels were largely for cereals. Which... also feels weird. Who needs advertising to care to eat Cheerios?