Two stories dominated streaming media in 2025: Netflix versus the rest and YouTube takes TV. YouTube may be the bigger story. “Netflix knows who its competition is,” said media guru Evan Shapiro at IBC2025. “It’s YouTube.” No one was really surprised when YouTube CEO Neal Mohan declared in his “Our Big Bets for 2025” blog post in February 2025 that “YouTube is the new television.” That’s because the figures don’t lie. In the same post, Mohan revealed that TV screens have officially overtaken mobile as the “primary device for YouTube viewing in the U.S.”
“The ‘new’ television doesn’t look like the ‘old’ television,” Mohan wrote. “It’s interactive and includes things like Shorts, … podcasts, and live streams, right alongside sports, sitcoms and talk shows people already love.” Noting that 45 million Americans watched election-related content on the platform, he underscored, “YouTube will remain the epicenter of culture.”
YouTube CEO Neal Mohan’s February 2025 shot across the bow of streaming and traditional TV
YouTube’s Broadcast Frenemies Respond
Already the largest internet TV provider in the U.S., with more than 9 million subscribers, YouTube held 12.5% of all TV use in May 2025, the highest share of TV for any streamer to date, according to Nielsen. Nielsen also notes that YouTube Main (excluding YouTube TV) is up more than 120% since 2021, leading a collection of free services (such as Pluto TV, The Roku Channel (aff), and Tubi), which has been “a major driver of streaming’s overall success.”
In the U.K., regulator Ofcom reported in July 2025 that YouTube was the second-most-watched streaming service behind the BBC. Among those ages 16–34, YouTube was the most-watched service overall.
YouTube has become the indispensable distribution partner for studios and broadcasters. More and more broadcast content is…