YouTube TV is appealing to advertisers by showing how it can draw in younger viewers and integrate its stars with cross-promotions.
Key Details
- YouTube TV pays $2 billion for the exclusive rights to broadcast the NFL’s Sunday Ticket—which it offers as a subscription service for $349 per year or with a $100 discount prior to June 6, having bought the rights in December.
- The platform offers different subscription bundles for YouTube users and YouTube TV subscribers, between $249 and $489.
- The Google-backed video-content platform is hoping to leverage its internet personalities and younger demographics to attract advertisers away from the TV and create sponsorship tie-ins between brands, sports teams, and large online personalities.
- The average YouTube user is 37 years old, compared to the average TV audience at 55, The Wall Street Journal reports.
- Neilson reports that YouTube surpassed Netflix in February in terms of the overall share of screen time—7.8% to 7.3%, respectively, in March.
- YouTube TV’s acquisition of Sunday Ticket has helped set the service up as a viable competitor in the streaming wars, improving its status as the free version of YouTube is currently the most-watched streaming service in the U.S.
Why It’s Important
YouTube has grown tremendously since its founding in 2005, and its image and purpose have transformed significantly in that time from being a video hosting platform for viral videos and video game playthroughs into a competitive streaming platform, with its parallel YouTube TV and YouTube Music apps competing against other premiere entertainment services.
“We think the numbers speak for themselves. You’re seeing users vote with what they’re watching,” says YouTube Chief Business Officer Mary Ellen Coe.
With upcoming upfront events currently scheduled, YouTube sees these numbers as its ticket to drawing more advertising dollars its way, an important step in the right direction for a company that has taken an advertising hit, like many tech companies, in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns.
Coe tells The Wall Street Journal that it plans to send its high-profile content creators to attend games, post videos, interview players, and interact with them in the locker rooms to help bring NFL attention to younger audiences.