Connected TV (CTV) viewing, or watching web content on your TV set, is growing rapidly, as more people are finding more engaging entertainment options online, as opposed to via traditional TV channels and providers.

And YouTube, in particular, is benefiting from this. Earlier this year, YouTube reported that its users now watch more than a billion hours of YouTube content on their TVs every day, while ratings provider Nielsen reported that YouTube was the top streaming platform by watch time in 2023.

That opens up a heap of opportunities for the platform, particularly in regards to ad potential.

And today, YouTube has shared some new stats on CTV usage, and how it’s continuing to grow over time.

In a new overview, YouTube reports that:

• Watchtime of its sports content on TV sets has grown over 30% year-over-year. YouTube has added new elements on this front, like multi-view, which enables YouTube TV subscribers to keep up with multiple games at once, as well as “Sunday Ticket” for NFL. And it seems that those efforts are paying off, with YouTube bringing in more sports fans as a result.
• Strangely, YouTube users now “watch” over 400 million hours of podcasts each month via their living room devices. Which seems like an odd trend, but maybe, using YouTube to stream a podcast while, say, working out is a new use case.
• The share of videos uploaded to YouTube in 4K is up by over 35% year over year, as creators look to align with big screen viewing
• The number of creators generating a majority of their revenue from TV is up by more than 30% year-over-year.

To capitalize on its CTV opportunities, YouTube says that it’s adding new elements, like “Watch With”, which enables creators to provide their own live commentary during games.

It’s also rolling out a new “Parent Code” element, so that parents can lock their profiles, and ensure their kids aren’t accessing inappropriate content via the CTV app.

Finally, YouTube’s also looking to make it easier for CTV viewers to subscribe to channels from their TV set.

As you can see in this example, YouTube’s adding a “Subscribe” button directly to the CTV video player. YouTube says that in early testing, this more prominent, more accessible button has increased subscriptions via CTV by 40%.

The rise of CTV viewing makes a lot of sense, particularly when you also consider that adults in their late twenties have now been living with YouTube, and YouTube creators, all of their lives.

That means that they’re more aligned with PewDiePie than your traditional TV celebrity, while younger viewers are more interested in catching the latest installment of the “Skibidi Toilet” franchise than the latest episode of a TV series.

And again, that could provide significant new reach opportunities.

You can check out YouTube’s CTV overview for 2024 here.