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YouTube viewers reportedly watch over two billion hours of YouTube Shorts — the platform’s vertical clips that are up to three minutes long — on televisions each month.
According to a new report by TechCrunch, short-form videos on YouTube are increasingly being watched on television screens, making the “living room” the platform’s fastest-growing viewing environment.
The report says YouTube’s vertically oriented short-form videos are helping drive TV usage. In response, YouTube has updated its TV interface to better support Shorts.
“The living room is YouTube’s fastest-growing screen, and the Shorts experience is further helping connect viewers with the world’s most active creator community from the comfort of their couch,” Kurt Wilms, YouTube’s senior director of product management for YouTube on TV, tells the news outlet. “We’ve found that audiences increasingly want to watch their favorite content on the biggest screen at home, whether it’s long-form content, a podcast, or a Short.”
Because vertical video creates unused space on widescreen televisions, YouTube has updated the TV viewing interface to display comments next to YouTube Shorts rather than hiding them.
“By tailoring Shorts for the big screen, we unlocked a more immersive way for fans to engage with their favorite content while also creating a massive new stage for creators to reach global audiences and scale their businesses,” said Sarah Ali, VP of product management for YouTube Shorts, says.
TechCrunch reports that the living room has become a key area of growth for YouTube overall. U.S. viewers alone are watching more than 200 million hours of YouTube content daily. Shorts also appear in search results on TV devices, meaning users may encounter them even when they were not specifically looking for short videos. The company is also expanding how Shorts are surfaced on television through Google TV, which has introduced a “Short videos for you” row in its content feed to encourage more viewing on the big screen.
The news comes after Instagram announced it testing a new app that allows users to watch Reels on their television, beginning with Amazon Fire TV in the U.S. Meta announced that Instagram is expanding Reels viewing beyond smartphone devices with a test version of “Instagram for TV.” The Meta-owned social platform writes that the pilot is designed to make it easier to watch Reels together on a television and to help the company understand how people want to experience short-form video on a larger screen. By launching a television-focused Reels experience, Instagram is hoping to enter a space that has been largely dominated by YouTube.
Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.
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